The Man of My Dreams: 1979: Off The Wall Era
by mjforever
Summary: Kzinga's heart is filled with hopelessness and fear as she stumbles through the streets of Los Angeles, wondering when everything will turn around. As she's walking, she runs into someone very unexpected. Can he help her? Or will he be another heartache?
1. Chapter 1

If it hadn't have been for me spotting him on that cold, late night, our eyes would still be wandering the rest of the world...everything but each other. It was after a performance that Michael and I met. He was _too_ handsome for words, with his short jerry curls and his heavenly voice. The way he would just woo me... He _always_ made me happy, no matter where we were. In my true opinion, Michael was truly an angel in human form.

. . .

One night, I was walking down the streets of Los Angeles, not knowing where to go, because I wanted to take a walk to get away from my parents. They had just recently told me that I couldn't live with them anymore. Their explanation...they gave me none. So pretty much the entire day I walked around L.A., non-stop, tired and hungry, to wherever my feet would take me, hopefully running into someone that would magically carry me under their protective wing and give me a place to stay. Anyone. At this point, I didn't really care who the person was. Tears formed in my eyes as I remembered the hatefulness of my parents, and the way they yelled at me. As one fell, I quickly wiped it away, not liking it when I started crying in public. This was most definitely _not_ the time to have a pity party. I needed to figure out this situation. I looked down at my watch, which read 10:47. I don't understand why they wanted me out so bad, but I guess some people were just like that. I was only sixteen! What was I supposed to do? I didn't even have any close friends in L.A. Plus, I was in an abusive relationship with this guy named Anthony. Well, technically speaking, he was now my ex, but he claims that were still together. After I broke up with him, he promised me that he wouldn't hurt me anymore, but I didn't trust him and told him to leave me alone. I wasn't about to go through the same agony again. That man was only filled with empty promises, and I knew it. So, basically I wasn't just out here all alone because of my parents. It was also because of him too. It's not to say that they weren't the blame, though. They would bitch and moan about my being obsessed over Michael, and I would just think in my head "Well, It's not like you two of all people would understand." I stopped in front of a certain studio, just to get a peek of what was happening inside. I couldn't go inside because I didn't know anyone, but I looked in and was utterly shocked at what my eyes kept their focus on. Of course, I saw the people dancing and having fun. My eyes caught on Diana Ross on stage performing, but then I saw _Michael_. My heart stopped all of a sudden, thinking that my eyes were maybe playing a trick on me. But as I kept staring at him, I realized that it really _was_ him, that I wasn't just imagining it. I thought about Michael all the time for years, even though we never met. In my heart I truly believed we were meant to be together, which I found out later on was true. Michael was dancing with a certain girl, but the girl was turned around, so I couldn't really see her. As far as I could see, she had short brownish-blondish hair, and she was kind of tall. She had on a bright red dress too, I think. I was in shock, but I also wasn't stupid. I almost kept walking because I didn't want the girl to get upset at me if I called Michael outside so that I could meet him, but then I changed my mind. I probably wasn't going to have the same opportunity ever again, so why not just say hello for a quick minute, right? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? So I went up to the glass of the studio and looked inside, hoping that he would see me standing there. I kept looking at him, dancing and sliding across the room with the girl. Then the music stopped, and everyone started clapping. Diana Ross was finished singing her song "Upside Down". I listened to that song so many times that it was ridiculous! Every time I listened to it though, it reminded me of Michael. He really _did_ turn me upside down, and inside out, in every way. Diana grabbed the microphone from the stand, and started to speak.

"Whoo! How we all _doin_' here tonight at Studio 84?" she yelled. The crowd cheered and clapped all over again.

Finally, after the crowd settled down, she spoke again. I was truly amazed by Diana Ross. She's just so _beautiful _and so groovy! Don't get me wrong. I'm not homosexual, (though I honestly don't see anything wrong with it) but I just adore that woman, probably just as much as Michael does.

"And now...I want all ya'll to put your hands together for a special friend of mine."

I saw Michael blush and smile. At that moment, I still couldn't believe he was right there.

"He just released his first solo album, as you all know as 'Off The Wall'." More people erupted in laughter and cheer. "He's a very special friend of mine, and now I'd like to introduce him. Ladies and Gentlemen, the light of my life and my dear friend, Michael Jackson!" It seemed as if the volume suddenly got louder than before when she said his name. He got up on the stage and hugged her.

"Thank you, Diana." he said.

My heart stopped again when I actually heard his voice. It was him. I held my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming, and Lord, did I honestly try, but it was _so_ hard. Thankfully, I was able to keep quiet. Michael kissed Diana on the cheek, and she walked off the stage. He started to sing "Burn This Disco Out", and even though I was slightly cold because it was late at night and the temperature had dropped, I danced around to the song. It was my favorite song off of the whole album! I watched him from head to toe just tear up that damn stage like the natural that he was:

_Gonna dance_

_Gonna burn this disco out!_

_Keep the boogie, alright_

_Everybody just get on down!_

He finished singing the song and I clapped along with all of the other people who were inside. He got off the stage, and the background music started to play again. He went over to the girl again, and started talking to her. He was talking just like normal, and then...the most shocking thing in the world happened. He saw me, standing there, looking right back at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two- Meeting My Soul-mate

I froze in my place as my longtime idol stared into my eyes. Shit! What was I supposed to do? My mind was telling me to run, but my heart told me otherwise. So, instead of running like a crazy maniac, I tried to take the shocked look away from my face and I played it cool by waving at him. He smiled and waved back at me. Oh my _Lord_! He actually waved back at me. I beckoned him to come out. He mouthed an "Okay" to me. He told the girl to hold on it looked like, and then...he walked out and saw me. Now remember, I was just a fan back then, so I was really nervous, not expecting for him to actually waste his precious time with another stupid fan like me. I must have been shaking like crazy when he walked up to me.

"Hey. How are you?" he asked me, in that high, sensitive sounding voice of his.

"I'm fine. I can't believe...It's actually you! Michael Jackson is actually standing right in front of me."

He laughed and said that he got that reaction from most of his fans.

"Your performance was really good. I saw it."

"Thank you..." he said, almost singing. He smiled hugely at me.

"No problem."

I felt kind of awkward for a second. Funny how that could happen _even_ with Michael, but then I started up the conversation again.

"So, um, where are your brothers? It's just, I didn't see them inside."

"Oh, they all went home."

"Your mom and dad too?"

"Yeah, they said they were all tired, so they said that they were going home."

"Oh. Are you going home too?"

"Naw, Im'a stay here a little longer. But, I'd better go back inside and talk to someone. It was nice meeting you."

"Oh." I said, feeling sad. Here I was, meeting the man I admired since he was little and part of The Jackson Five, and he had to leave. I really didn't want him to leave, but I didn't want to see him annoyed and look at me as if I was just another annoying fan that always wanted way too much from him. Michael looked at me, worried.

"What's the matter?" he asked me.

"Nothing, it's just that I cant go into the studio, but I really want to keep talking to you. I mean, you are my biggest idol, and, well, this moment will probably never happen in my entire life ever again-"

"How come you cant come inside?"

"I don't know anyone in there."

"You know me, though." he told me, eyeing me with that sweet smile on his face.

I paused and nodded, agreeing with him.

"How old are you?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"I'm sixteen."

"Oh. I'm twenty-one."

I was surprised to see Michael so calm and relaxed, but I sighed, thinking that I had to say goodbye. Michael placed his huge hand over his mouth and, which in my opinion was extremely sexy. _Anything_ Michael Jackson did was sexy, but of course, who didn't know that, right?

"Sorry." he said in his high, super-attractive voice, turning beet red and giggling. "My throat is a little dry from singin'. "

I giggled too.

"Do your parents know you're out here all by yourself on this cold night, miss?" he asked me, mimicking a stranger talking to a child. It made me laugh, but then I sighed again sadly. How was I supposed to tell Michael about the situation I was in? I didn't want to tell Michael my personal life, even if I did admire him. I didn't want him to feel sorry for him. This was his night, and he should enjoy it. But there was something about him...that made me _want_ to tell him. For some reason, he seemed like he would care, unlike many people. Maybe he could help me...no! What was I talking about? Michael had more important things to do than help an idiot like me.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, tearing me away from my mental nightmare.

"Yeah, I was just...can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, of course. What is it?"

"The truth is...my parents want me out of my house and on my own for some strange reason. They said that they're sick of me and that I can visit them every once in a while, but I cant live there anymore. I've been literally walking these streets this entire day, crying, because I don't know what to do." As I said the word "crying", I could feel warm tears well in my eyes, and tried hard to swallow them down.

"I cant believe that. Why would they do that?"

"I don't know, Michael."

"That's worse than what my father used to do to me when I was little." I was interrupted by Michael gasping, and then smiled again, all of his gorgeous white teeth shining through.

"What?" I asked.

"I have an idea. Why don't you and I just go for a walk? Maybe get to know each other for a little bit longer?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I said, totally stunned at what he just said. He wanted to go for a walk with _me_? Of all the people in the world, me?

"Hold on, let me go back inside and tell my girlfriend I'm leaving for a while."

Suddenly, I got sad again. He went back inside and went up to the same girl as before. I couldn't believe it, she was his girlfriend! I'd forgotten that he was currently dating someone. Finally for the first time that night, I could really see who the girl was, and my heart sunk when I did. It was that one girl, Tatum O'Neal, who was his girlfriend. She was so pretty too, and I was _very_ jealous of her. I saw Michael walk back in there and kiss her so passionately, and all I felt was sadness. Was it possible that maybe one day I could be with him too? Kiss him like she did?

Michael turned around and came back outside.

"Okay, lets go." he said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three- A Long Walk with MJ

We walked around the neighborhood, and into the streets of the suburbs, talking about random things.

"Do you like being famous, Michael?"

"Eh, sometimes, but not all the time. I try to stay away from the media and cameras as much as I can, because I'm really shy most of the time."

"I know it can probably be stressful a lot of the time, but I wouldn't know what it feels like, because I'm not rich or famous."

"Be glad, trust me. It ain't as fun as it look." he said and laughed.

"So...tell me about yourself, honey. What's your name?"

"Well," I began.

"My name is Kzinga."

"Wow. That's really hard to pronounce."

"I know. You don't know how many times people have told me that in my life."

"But, it _is_ very pretty."

"Thanks, Michael."

"I wish I had a cool name too."

"But it _is_ cool."

"Do you know how many in the world are named Michael?"

"You're Michael Jackson. Anything that you have or possess or do is instantly cool." I said, pushing his arm playfully. Man, if only my friends could see me right now...

He looked down, obviously feeling embarrassed.

"Well it's true, and you know it." I reassuringly said to him, and bumped him in the arm again.

"I'm also a big music fanatic, just like you...and, well, I really like to read and stuff."

"Me too."

I looked up at the moon and recognized how the light shined on the both of us. I admired how beautiful it was, and how even more beautiful it was now that Michael stood there. He made everything in the world seem beautiful, because he _himself_ was beautiful. Michael walked with his hands in back of him. I heard him clear his throat, and giggled at how sexy he sounded when he did it.

"What?" he asked, puzzled.

"Nothing.", I answered, still smiling to myself.

I looked up at the moon again.

He looked at his watch.

"I might need to get back soon. We've been walking for about fifteen minutes now."

"Why not longer?" I asked him.

"Well, Tatum, my girlfriend might get worried that something happened to me."

"Tatum..." I muttered miserably.

"She's not your mom, you know." I said, half joking, but really I was pissed at him for being so _caring _towards Tatum. I know that sounds kind of mean, but if you met this chick you'd be like "Ok, Michael, time to dump her, _now._"

I must have said that last remark to him a bit harshly, because it made him stare at me.

"Well...no, but...she's my girlfriend, and I don't want her to be worried about me."

I looked down at my shoes as I walked, trying my hardest not to start crying. I wanted Michael so much to myself.

"Why do you like her so much?"

"But that's just the thing...I don't just like her. I _love_ her. I've always loved her, and she loves me too. I really love her personality, and she's really beautiful-"

"And white." I interrupted.

"That's not why I love her. And who cares if she's white? I certainly don't care, and I don't know why _you_ do."

"Michael..." I began to say. I had wanted to say how he was so much like other black young men that were color struck, not looking at a sister like me once for any reason at all, but I didn't, not wanting to cause anymore conflict. But I guess it was too late for that. He was already upset, and for some reason, I wasn't stopping.

"Never mind. Fine, let's go back then, so you can...be with _Tatum. _It's not like she's anything special, Michael. You and I both know why you're dating her, and I can tell you right now, it's not just because of her personality or anything like that. Tatum is white, and because you're rich and famous, then you're not any different than any other young black man who if you had to choose, you most certainly would not choose to date the black girl, even if you did like her more than the white one. "One thing you should know about me Michael Joseph Jackson is that I can see the truth in everything. I'm not that stupid, though you might think that I am. Let's take me for example. If you really liked me and only liked Tatum a little bit...just tell me honey, who would you want more?"

I put my hand over my mouth. What have I _done_? I just insulted the greatest person on earth! What the fuck was my problem? I had absolutely no right to say that to Michael...no matter how angry (or right) I was.

As soon as I said it, I instantly regretted it. I hadn't meant to say it to him in that way, and my face was super hot with humiliation. Michael stopped walking and turned his body towards me, looking so angry with me that I felt as if I needed to run before he exploded. He was moving closer to me, his fists balled and at his sides. I wondered momentarily if he planned to hit me, so as a natural reaction, I backed away slowly. But instead, he pointed his long finger at me.

"I don't even know you, and Tatum most likely doesn't either, and you're talking all this shit about her. Why don't you just screw off? Why am I even out here with you? I should be back at the studio having fun, and here I am bickering with you, just another fan of mine, about stupid shit like this!"

At that moment, I was so shocked, I stood there, staring at him. I couldn't believe it. Michael Jackson just _insulted_ me! _And_ he swore! I'd never seen that or heard that in my life. One thing you absolutely _must_ know about Michael Jackson is if he's pissed off at the moment, it's probably a good idea that you stay far away from him for a while, or he'll most likely yell at you and curse you out, even if you didn't do anything wrong. Unfortunately on that very night, for me, I learned that the hard way. Now tell me _that _wouldn't have an effect! The man who I once thought was so glorious. Now...not so much. The tears I was so willingly holding back now filled my eyes.

Michael and I began walking now, him faster and me following behind, not even wanting to look at him. The tears rushed down my cheeks as I looked at the ground, now uglier than before, which matched my mood. It was my fault, though. I caused this, not Michael.

I tried as hard as I could to hold back the loud sobbing noises that I made when I normally cried, but they came anyway. Michael frowned, and turned around trying to look at me, but I turned my face away.

"A-are you crying?" he asked me. How could I _not_ be crying!? I felt horrible!

I kept sobbing and sniffling, not responding. We both stopped walking again. Michael put his hand on his chest, and that's when I knew that he felt horrible.

"Oh no." he said.

"I'm so sorry." he reached for my arm.

"Oh god. Please _forgive_ me, Kzinga. I..." he trailed off.

"I didn't mean to upset you. I swear this isn't like me."

My face was still looking downward, feeling happy that he apologized, but still not happy about the argument we'd had earlier. That man was never evil to me. He always turns beautiful after a flaw. But it's because he's Michael Jackson. If it'd been some other guy, I would never forgive them. Michael was the only one I would ever turn back to.

He took his hands and lifted my chin, really looking at me for the first time since that entire night.

"Come here." he whispered.

I went into his open arms, and he put them around me, embracing me. He smelled like lavender lotion, and I loved it. I let tears run down my cheeks, resulting me in wetting his shirt. He didn't seem to mind. He rubbed his hand across my back protectively, comforting me.

"Shh..." he said ever so quietly and softly. He really _was_ a sweetheart.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that."

"It was my fault too. It was just me being jealous. Its just, in the past, when I've dated a guy, especially he was black, most of the time he would tell me that he didn't want me anymore because of another girl that he all of a sudden figured out he loved better. And most of the time, the girls were always white. I didn't mean to offend you like that. It was just anger inside of me that I let out in the wrong way. Its not your fault."

"But It's not like I'm like that. I like a girl because of the way she is, not who she is. That doesn't give me an excuse to say what I said to you though. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me for that heartless remark, and I hope you still want to talk to me."

I smiled through my tears, understanding.

"It's alright, Michael."

I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked at him. Michael looked at me too, then took his long caramel colored fingers and wiped them away. He half-smiled at me.

"Better?" he asked.

I nodded, still sniffling. I reached him for another hug, and as I smelled the lavender on his body, I suddenly had the impulse to do something.

Chapter Three- Heading Back

"Michael?"

"Yeeessss?" he said, slurring out the word. We were walking back towards the other direction, towards the club...toward Tatum. I mentally groaned.

"Can you..." I said, then trailed off, grabbing his hand. Uncomfortable, he removed it quickly, but then reconsidered and smiled. He slowly placed his hand back in mine.

"Can I...?" he said.

"Can you...not tell your girlfriend I did this?"

"Did what, Kzinga?"

"This."

I was leaning closer and closer to Michael. I kissed his cheek swiftly, then stood back, feeling embarrassed. He smiled, but then he stopped walking. He turned his face back at me, then reached for both of my hands. In my mind, I was wondering what he was up to. He held my hands firmly in his.

"Well then..." he murmured in my ear.

Then he grabbed me gently by the waist and pulled me closer to him, his breath smelling a bit like alcohol.

"Michael, were you drinking in that club?"

"Oh, just a tiny bit." he said, licking his lips.

"I trust that you wont tell Tatum I did this."

"Did what, Michael? That you were drinking? You're legally old enough, you know-" I said, then he cut me off.

"No not that. That...I kissed you."

"But, you didn't."

Suddenly, he leaned his face forward and kissed my cheek. My senses tingled as I felt his lips on my skin.

"I won't tell her." I said, half in a trance.

"I promise."

"Good. Then I wont either. And, uh...don't tell her about this either."

This time, his lips touched mine, and he kissed me, long and rough. He was a wonderful kisser. His mouth went nice and slow against mine, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was truly enjoying everything he was doing to me at that moment, and I never wanted him to stop, but abruptly, he did.

"What, Michael?"

"I shouldn't be doing this. I'm cheating on...her."

Anger struck through me like a terrible storm.

"Can't you just forget about Tatum for one minute?"

"No, I cant. She's my girlfriend."

We walked in silence for a while, not saying a word to each other. Damn! Finally, about five minutes later, I wanted to ask him something.

"Michael?"

"What?!" he yelled, his voice thick with pure irritation.

I felt hurt on the inside again. For some reason, when it was _Michael _yelling at me, I felt the saddest I could ever feel, and it never happened with any other guy. Only him.

"Pardon my rudeness." he said, taking a deep breath and calming down.

"Yes, Kzinga?"

"I just wanted to know...when you kissed me...did you feel the same way like when you kiss Tatum?"

He exhaled and made a _mmm _sound.

"Well...no, actually. When I kiss Tatum, I mean, I feel it, and I really do love it. Tatum's lips are like sweet cherry blossom petals fresh from the trees." he said, and sighed dreamily. I reached my finger to my _own _lips, trying to make a comparison, but I guess there wasn't much of one. He obviously thought that Tatum's lips were better. Or so I thought...

"But...when I kissed you...I don't know. They felt...I really hate to say it, but your kiss was much, _much_ better."

Inside, I was screaming! Michael Jackson actually thought that my kisses were better! Oh my Goodness.

"Really?" I asked him.

He nodded at me.

"Are you surprised?" he asked.

"Very."

"I knew you would be."

"I wont tell Tatum that either."

"Thank you."

But then I realized something. He was going to go back to Tatum anyway. Afterall, they _were_ still dating.

"Well, were here." he said.

I looked in disappointment at the club lights ahead, but there was something that instead of depressed me, scared me a little as I saw what it was.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four- A Confrontation

Tatum O'Neal looked like a lion that hadn't eaten in two days. She stood outside in front of the club, with her pale skinny arms folded, and her foot tapping.

"Shit! What am I going to do?" Michael whispered.

Feeling clueless, I just shrugged my shoulders. As we got closer to Tatum, I tried not to make eye contact with her.

"Where were you, Michael?" she asked.

"Nowhere, I was-"

"And who's _she_?" she pointed a long white finger at me.

"She's...I just met her, she's one of my fans."

Tatum narrowed her beautiful yet terrifying green eyes at me.

"Hurry up and come inside."

She fixed her brownish-blondish hair, then stormed back inside. What on earth was her problem? Michael wasn't her damn _property_! I heard him sigh.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye."

Just exactly what I dreaded he would say. I rolled my eyes, his selfish girlfriend making me hate her so muchat that moment.

"But...Michael. I don't want to say goodbye."

"I know. But Tatum's kinda pissed, and-"

"I need you to know this right now Michael. In the last thirty minutes that I was able to talk to you in person, I realized that I don't want to be a fan of yours anymore."

He had a hurt look on his face.

"Y-you don't?"

"No. Instead, I want to be your friend, which I know you desperately need right now. And honey, I know you hate to face the truth, but that thing in there," I pointed at Tatum in the club talking to her friends, her face red with anger, probably gossiping about me, " is not working."

He smiled at me, then laughed as he peered at Tatum through the glass, his white teeth showing again.

"I want to be your friend too, Kzinga."

Michael quickly pulled my arm and led me behind a bush. His body was so close to mine, that I began to get excited that maybe he would maybe make out with me behind Tatum's back. If only she saw us right now...

"You know what I've decided?"

"What is it, Michael?" I asked, looking into his big beautiful brown eyes.

"I've decided that...I need you here with me. You're a very interesting girl, if I do say so myself.

"But what about-"

He hushed me hastily.

"Listen to me, because I got an idea. I want you to wait for me right here. I'll be out in about ten or fifteen minutes. I'm going to fool Tatum into thinking I got rid of you, but she wont know a thing. I'm going back to tell everyone I'm leaving, and I'll come back to get you. Now, you listen to me very carefully. Do _not..._I repeat, do not move from this spot. Keep yourself hidden. I promise you that I'll be back, and when I come out...well, did your parents say that you couldn't stay here as of today?"

"Yes, and they meant it. I don't really know anyone else in L.A., either."

"You're coming with me tonight, then, to my house in Encino."

"Your _what_?" I said, truly not believing what I was hearing.

"But...no Michael. I can't. I don't want to cause trouble. I'll find somewhere else..." I said to him, but the look that I gave apparently said otherwise. "Please, it would make me feel very happy. And besides, I cant just leave you here. What kind of parents would leave their poor sixteen year old out here to survive? You're too young to be living on the streets, honey. You know what people can do to you out here? Especially if you're a _girl_? They'll take advantage of you, kidnap you...even rape you, maybe. I'm not taking that chance with a sweet little girl like you. So you're coming with me."

"Okay, I'll go with you. And, I'm not that little. I'm only five years younger than you." I joked with him.

"Well, then pardon _me_, young lady." he corrected himself. I erupted into laughter.

He smiled at me, then turned around to walk back to the studio, but I got hold of his arm and he faced me again.

"Thank you, Michael. For being so nice to me."

He just shrugged.

"Now stay here, baby. And don't let no one see you, you hear?"

"Did...you just call me baby?"

He looked down, embarrassed again. He sure did get shy easily!

"Yes, I did." he said.

He kissed me, and kind of sucked on both of my lips. He bit my lower one unintentionally, and I winced.

"Ouch, Michael! You bit me."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me kiss where it hurts." he said playfully, kissing my lips lightly again.

"Better?"

"Yes."

He chuckled silently.

"Wait here, okay?"


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five- "Boyfriend...I'm gonna tell your girlfriend..."_

_I did as I was told. I would do anything for Michael. And so I waited and waited....I looked at my watch, and it read eleven o' clock. It was a while before he came out again. I was beginning to get very bored and tired, and only wanted him to come out again. I looked up to stare at the dark sky. I really did admire the moon, but it just wasn't as nice as Michael's sweet blushing face. Yes, I'd seen him on television, heard him on the radio since I was born. I even had all of the music he'd ever done, including when he was part of The Jackson Five._

_But something was happening, deep, deep_ inside me, and I didn't know what it was in that moment. But then, laughing at myself I finally realized what was going on. I was falling in _love _with Michael Jackson. I couldn't believe it! But I guess it was okay, because really, I feel like I'd known him my whole life, like he was the best friend I never had.

I looked at my watch again, and it read eleven-sixteen. Suddenly I heard footsteps. I hoped no one would discover me sitting here. I smiled to see a big brown hand push away the leaves and the sticks, and I saw Michael's face.

"Sorry I took so long. Tatum wouldn't stop talking."

"It's alright, I'm okay." What a needy bitch!

"Are you ready to go?"

"Ready if you are."

Michael looked back at the people that were now leaving the club.

"Why are people leaving _now_? It's not even that late."

"Not everyone is leaving, but most of these people have to work early. Some of these people are going to work at the studio tomorrow."

"The what?"

"Studio. You know, the studio. Not this studio, but, you know, the one where we film and make music and stuff."

I looked at him, a bit confused, then remembered.

"Sorry, Michael. Sometimes I forget that I'm talking to the biggest superstar ever."

"I'm not that famous yet, you know."

"What are you talking about? You must be drunk."He laughed and hit me lightly, but his touch was a little heavy-handed. I rubbed where he hit.

"Sorry." he said, half-smiling at me.

"You're kind of rough, you know."

"I know. You alright?" he asked me, looking concerned.

"I'll survive."

He laughed again, but loudly this time, so I shushed him. I didn't want anyone to hear us. He made an "Oops!" expression on his face. I giggled at him.

"Is Tatum leaving?" I asked him.

"Well, she told me she was."

"Did you guys already part for the night?"

"Yeah, I think she's going home now."

"So..." I started, slowly pulling the bowtie on his shirt towards me.

"I guess _now_, I have you all to myself."

"That would be right."

He leaned forward to kiss me, but I stopped him.

"What's wrong, baby?"

I shushed him and put a finger on his soft brown lips.

"You see something?"

"Yeah, Tatum. She just came out. I don't want her to hear anything."

She was looking around for someone. I guessed Michael.

"I think you might want to go back and say goodbye again for tonight."

"But...I just...oh!" he said then rolled his eyes.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay." I said and nodded, finding it amusing that he was now starting to get annoyed at her.

I watched him go back out and go up to Tatum.

"Yes, sweetheart?" he asked wearily.

"There you are! I wanted to see you again."

She put her arms around him and rubbed her hand through his hair, messing it up, and activator grease smeared everywhere on her fingers. She laughed and wiped them off on her dress.

"So, you want to do something tomorrow?"

"Like what?" he said to her.

"I don't know, hang out at my house or something?"

"Sure, that sounds fine. Listen, Tatum, I have to go."

"Why in such a rush, babe?" she said, playing with his bowtie. A speck of jealousy flew through me, and I frowned.

"I'm not in a rush. I'm just tired and I...uh," he looked over at the bushes, and looked at me. I giggled quietly. He looked back at her, trying not to smile.

"I just want to go to sleep, that's all." he rushed.

"Oh, okay. Well, hm. Let's see. You want me to pick you up at...maybe, eight tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow. Oh hey, did you get rid of that other girl?"

"No." I whispered, still laughing quietly.

"Oh yeah. She left a long time ago." Michael said. If only that prick new he was lying. If only she knew what we were gonna do as soon as we left...

"Good boy." she said, patting his cheek. I could tell that he didn't like when she did that to him.

She kissed him, then got in a car up ahead with her friends. Michael pretended to be considerate and wait for her to leave, but I knew the real reason why. Tatum would get all too suspicious about him going back to the same bushes he was looking at before.

Tatum waved at him, then drove off, her car fading off into the distance. And _that_...was my cue.

I got up from the bushes and walked towards Michael. I had to act casual, or people would think Michael was cheating on Tatum, which he kind of was. Technically speaking though, he wasn't because he's just helping me...right? We both quietly walked over to his car. Just like a true gentleman would, he unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for me. I thanked him and got inside. Before Michael closed the door on me, someone was calling him. We both looked back to see Quincy Jones beckoning for him to talk to him. He turned back at me.

"Excuse me." he said politely, then walked over to Quincy.

"Who's that girl?" he asked Michael.

"Oh, that's Kzinga. She's a fan, I'm just driving her home."

Yet again another lie. Michael sure was good at lying when necessary.

"Oh, I was about to say. You looked like for a minute you were two timing."

"Oh no. I'm a one woman man." I heard him say. We _both_ knew that was no longer accurate. 

"Well, I'll see you later then, I gotta get some shut eye, man." Quincy said.

"Yeah, me too. Later, Q."

Michael walked back to the car and closed my door that he left open. He went into the drivers seat, and closed the door.

"You ready to go?"

I nodded. He started up the car and put it in drive mode.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six- Time to Go

When we got to his house, I realized that up close it was huge! Exactly how rich was he? Not that cared, but sometimes I just wondered. I couldn't believe that I was actually in his house! This had to be number one on the Most-Exciting-Things-I've-Ever-Done list. He got out of the car, then came around to open it for me. I got out, and we both held hands all the way to the door. He got out his keys and opened the door. I entered and smelled his scent everywhere in the house, observing how it was also kind of messy. I saw everything you could possibly imagine. From records to magazines. He had drawings on the floor, pictures, writings, everything! It reminded me of my room and how disorganized everything seemed to be.

"Here we are. Home sweet home." he said to me. "You like it?"

I looked at him and gave him a smile, then nodded. I truly did love his house, it was just a little messy. Actually, it was beautiful, but no matter how messy or pretty it was, there was suddenly only one thing that was on my mind. I couldn't think of anything else, and I'd honestly tried, but I kept my mouth shut, and kept saying to myself over and over again that I was just here for the night.

"Okay, so, you wanna take a shower before I do? Or you want me to go first?"

"No!" I said, cutting him off, then sighed, and spoke again, once again losing control of myself. What made me all of a sudden so eager for..._sex_? I guess Michael just had that kind of affect.

"Sorry, I mean, yeah I'll go shower." I said.

"Well, alright then. Come on upstairs. If you want, you can sleep in my room, and I'll sleep in the guest room." he said.

"No, it's okay. Why do you want me in your room?"

"I wasn't exactly expecting for someone to be staying here tonight, and so I didn't finish washing the sheets, and stuff."

"Oh okay, I see."

I followed him up the stairs and into his big room. As he turned on the lights, it seemed as if everything came to life. He had a king sized bed with beautiful large scarlet colored curtains. And as I wasn't surprised to see, it was also a mess, just like the rest of the house. There were cassettes on the tables and some on the floor. There was a tape recorder on the other side, and a copy of his album, I presumed. I couldn't really see it underneath all of the other paraphernalia he had on top of it.

"Michael, you really need to learn to clean up after yourself..."

I heard him laugh at my statement. He had pictures and posters of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Jackie Wilson, and James Brown (his favorite, I knew) on his walls, including one of himself. I laughed at that.

"What?" he asked.

"Why do you have a poster of yourself up on your wall?"

He scratched his neck and chortled.

"I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit of a narcissist."

"Oh, it's alright. Everyone likes to look at themselves every once in a while."

"Yeah, guess so. It's for a different reason though. I look at myself to get inspiration...to try to look inside myself, and see what I can improve. "

"That's interesting. Does it work?"

"I would say so."

Michael cleared his throat in that sexy way again, and this time I couldn't stop from laughing.

"What now?" he asked, laughing too.

"Nothing. It's just...when you do that..."

"Do what? Clear my throat?"

"Yeah. I just think it's really cute."

"You think it's _cute_?"

I nodded, and he laughed again.

"You're a little weird, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know. I don't think I can help that much."

"It's okay. People find me weird too sometimes. Tatum say she don't get me."

"It's because she's her...and you're you. You're a much more creative thinker than she is."

"I suppose."

"But...Michael?"

He looked at me head to toe, his hands in his pockets.

"I get you." I said.

"You do?"

"Yeah. You're just like me."

Michael watched me meaningfully. He didn't speak, just _watched_ me.

"And you know what I think, Michael?"

"What do you think, Kzinga?"

"I think...I think we're gonna be _great _friends."

"You know what _I _think?" he retorted.

"What Michael?" I asked, laughing at him.

"I think so too."

"Really?" I said, totally shocked.

He nodded his head slowly. I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted him, and I wanted him now.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Sure, what's on your mind?" he asked me, as he turned around and took off his jacket then placed it on the door handle.

"Well...you're going to think I'm crazy, but...Michael, I was hoping that, well, I've been lonely for a long time. And never have I met a guy like you. You're probably the only person to take in a person like me into their home."

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice. I wasn't going to leave you out there by yourself. You're just a kid."

"Michael, I know more than you think. I don't like being addressed as a kid."

"You know what? You're right. Tatum's a year older than you, so I shouldn't call you that if I don't see _her_ that way."

"I just wanted to say that...well, first I wanted to thank you for giving me a place to stay, and second of all...well...I love you, Michael Jackson."

He stopped rustling with his things on the floor and stood up straight. He turned around and stared at me. Feeling embarrassed, my eyes filled with tears.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

He walked up to me slowly and put his sweet, rough hand on my cheek.

"I cant believe I'm saying this even though I literally met you and I'm technically still dating Tatum, but I love you too...and I mean it."

Shocked, I stared at him as well. It took me a while before I could recuperate myself and reply back.

"Really?"

He nodded.

"How do you know that?"

"Because...you're the one. Tatum will never be."

I was the _one_. Wow.

"Can I hold you, Michael?" I asked him, now eager to only feel him in my arms and nothing else.

"Sure, honey. Come here."

I walked over to him, and we both stared into each other's eyes. He kissed my nose, and I did the same. Then he kissed my lips in that magical way again. He didn't stop for a long time. I suddenly couldn't take it anymore, and I broke my lips away.

"You okay?"

Oh Lord have mercy! When he kissed me...I just could _not _think.

"Uh...yeah I'm fine. It's just..."

I sighed and smiled at him.

"You're amazing, Michael."

"Thank you." he said softly.

"Can I ask something else of you?"

"And what is that?"

"I need...no I cant say it."

"Of course you can. It shouldn't be that shocking, considering you just told me that you love me, and I said the same." he said, raising his eyebrows. "What is it?"

"I need you to help me. My last boyfriend didn't love me, at all. Anthony. I need you to show me what he was supposed to, show me that you're better than him."

"In what way? Sex?"

The way he said that word made me shiver. The innocent Michael that I was used to seeing and hearing on television didn't seem to show on this very night. He laughed.

"Alright." he said, giving me a smile I'd never seen before in my life. A smile that indicated a Well-I-hope you're-ready-then kind of feeling.

"But, listen. I've, I've never done this before. This would be my first time, so...don't hurt me too much, okay?"

"I'll be careful. I promise."

He backed away, and unbuttoned his trousers. He let them drop to the floor, and I could see the true definition of his legs. I suddenly became extremely uncomfortable and started playing with my hair for comfort. I was wearing a long sleeved button down shirt, and I felt very hot. I knew it wasn't the heat of the room, just the heat inside of me...

Michael came over to me and gently removed my hands from my locks and put them at my sides. He kissed my neck, and while doing so, took his hands and slowly unbuttoned my shirt. I struggled out of it, and dropped it on the floor. He grabbed my waist and kissed my neck again, his big hands sliding down my hips and eventually touching my jeans. Without looking, he unbuttoned and unzipped them, then pushed them down to my ankles, revealing my white pantyhose.

I stood there, completely amazed at how much of a romantic and how sexually enticing he was able to act. It's like he knew what to do without ever even learning before. He was still wearing his polo shirt, so I decided to take it off for him. He shook himself out of it, showing his caramel skin all over his body. I took his shirt and threw it on the floor, a rush of adrenaline running through me, causing a major sex drive. And suddenly...

"That's it!" I yelled.

Michael flinched and backed away from me.

"What's the matter? You change your mind?"

"I can't take it anymore. I want you on me _right now_! I seriously can't wait anymore."

"Then what the hell we waitin' on?" he asked mischievously.

I forcefully grabbed his arm, and I ran to the bed. He pushed me down hard, causing me to stumble and fall on the bed a certain way that made me sprain my left wrist. I screamed in pain and held it to my chest.

"Damn, Michael! You're too rough. You hurt me. Again."

"I did? Where?"

"My hand."

"Oh, I'm sorry sugar."

"It's alright, it's not broken."

"Well, that's good. Forgive me for being that way. I try to control myself, but then I get all excited about stuff-"

"Don't talk anymore. Come on, I'm waiting." I said laughing.

Michael climbed on top of me, both of his arms on either side of my face and hair. He lifted me on the bed slightly, so that he could focus on removing my bra. Both of his hands were shaking as he finally slipped it off, and threw it at a mirror somewhere on the other side of the room. Both of my sensitive breasts were bare and naked in front of him. Finally, he helped with taking off my underwear, and tossed those as well. I did the same with his. And now, we were both completely naked against each other. I slid down the bed and waited for him to proceed.

"Ready?" he asked me.

"Yes, go ahead."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven- Break of Dawn

He stuck it long and hard inside of me, and I screamed in pleasure as well as shock. I felt the sensation of his cum inside of me and yelled louder. As he slid his penis in my hole deeper, I mumbled words almost inaudible. He didn't speak as we made love, only growled ferociously and grabbed my buttocks tighter between his long, warm fingers. He breathed in and out heavily and moved upwards and downwards on my body.

"Miiiicchhaaeeel! Baby...honey, deeper Michael, deeper. Harder, honey..."

"As you wish, sugar," he breathed and bent low to lick my sweaty breasts.

We stayed in the same position for a couple of minutes, then he took it out and sat back on the bed. I looked up at him, confused.

"What's wrong, Mike?"

He looked out the window, biting his lip like he was thinking.

"You alright, baby?"

He turned his face towards me.

"Yeah, I just got an idea. Move over."

I moved off of the bed and stood up.

"What're you doing?"

"You'll see..."

He lay back on the bed in the spot that I was just a moment ago.

"Get on top of me," he ordered. I did as he told me.

"Now fuck me."

I laughed, understanding what he wanted me to do.

I climbed on top of his sweaty body, then slipped his penis inside of me. I placed my hands on his chest and rocked back and forth on top of him. He raised his hand up to my jiggling breast and placated it. My motions ran faster on the bed, and I felt Michael's hot liquids run inside of me again. I moaned.

"For your first time, you sure are confident," he whispered while his eyes were closed. He suddenly opened them and smiled at me. I just shrugged and smiled back.

"I love you..."

"I love you too, Kzinga."

I chuckled as I rubbed my fingers across the both of his nipples, making him shiver.

The time passed by, hour after hour after hour...

One thing that I will never forget about Michael is he always knew how to make love to me so passionately. He moved around, rubbing my thigh. He was licking and sucking on _everything_, just the way he should.

There was something about sex in general that made you never want to do anything else when you were in the process of doing so. Sex was something sacred, and if it was the right way, only happened once in a blue moon. But I knew that I would never be lonely. I was always lonesome, even as a child. I knew that Michael would never leave me.

He forcefully turned me around on the bed with his strong arms and slapped my butt several times as I squealed in delight.

. . .

Both of us were finally breathless an sweating all over the place.

He fell down on the bed next to me, exhausted. I, feeling the same way, looked wearily out of the window beyond Michael's head, and saw that it was still dark outside.

"What time is it?" I asked.

He turned towards my direction and looked at the clock beside me.

"4:38."

"Wow. I'm so tired now."

Michael lifted himself from the bed and headed out of the room.

"Wait, where're you going?"

"To take a shower."

He smiled at me and left.

I looked out the window again, and saw a peak of light as I looked, and I suddenly became sad. I didn't want the night to end, though it was technically morning anyways.

Ten minutes later, Michael came back with a towel over his body. He blew out a breath of relaxation.

"Come on into bed with me," I said.

He threw the towel off and climbed into the bed.

"I'm tired," he said.

"Yeah, me too. Lets go to sleep now."

He grabbed a remote from the floor and clicked the light off.

"Goodnight, Michael."

"'Night, baby."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight- I Cant Help It

I had slept good that night, or...rather, morning. When I'm really tired, I tend to sleep the best. Only thing that I don't like about how I sleep is that I do so in a very deep state of mind. Meaning, I'm not aware of what kind of position I'm in when I am asleep. And usually, I awake in a very awkward and uncomfortable position, such as one of my feet hanging off of the bed, or my entire body being completely wrapped around the covers, kind of turning me into a cocoon.

I felt really bad for Michael, because he wasn't aware of my poor sleeping habits. I opened my eyes, my face against the pillow. I observed my surroundings, then remembered where I was. I turned to the window. It was now fully daytime outside. The sun shined in my eyes a little, so I changed my position. My eyes caught on Michael sleeping peacefully, snoring a little.

I stroked his soft hair, now more of a small afro than jerry curls, and saw how deformed it was, since he'd been sleeping the same way all night. I shifted my body so that I was laying on top of him, and was instantly warmer. He breathed in my face, and it tickled, but I settled on him, wrapping my arms around his. I placed my head on his neck, and felt the slight pulse throbbing inside.

Michael woke five minutes later. He groaned unpleasantly.

"Kzinga? Honey, I cant breathe," he said just above a whisper, the grogginess of sleep in his voice.

"Sorry," I said to him, chuckling. I removed myself from him, and lay on my side of the bed again. Michael sat up and stretched.

"How'd my angel sleep?" I asked him.

"Pretty good. I had a weird dream, though."

"Oh, really? What was it about?"

He said nothing for a couple of seconds, than began."Well, it was a bunch of stuff, actually. First, I dreamt about my used-to-be crush, Brooke Shields. I was so in love with her when I was younger, but I don't know if she ever felt the same way about me. Anyways, its when we were little. We were going to get some ice cream, I think, and I saw Joseph there, my father, as you probably already know."

"I know everything about you," I said reassuringly. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Do you now? I doubt that," he said, raising his nose in the air like a snob.

"Oh, trust me, I do. You forget, I've known about you since I was a little kid myself."

"You're still a little kid," he told me with a bit of attitude. I laughed.

"Whatever," I said.

"Anyways, so Joe's telling me that I need to go back home and I tell him no, so he starts to beat me, right there in front of Brooke, and she's watching this whole thing. I never told her what Joe used to do to me and my brothers when we were little. I didn't want her to tell the police and then him get in trouble. Then the next thing I knew, I -" He cut himself off by yawning.

"Sorry," he said and giggled like a little kid.

"Its okay. What else happened?"

"The next thing I knew I was on stage, and one of my songs was about to come on, but I forgot all of the words."

"What was the name of the song?" 

"I don't remember," he said. "That was when I woke up to see you lying on top of me, and I'm thinking, 'What the hell?'"

I started laughing.

"Then I realized that it was really you, and I relaxed. But anyways, that was it."

"Wow, that is weird."

"I know, right?" he said chuckling.

"Can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "Anything."

"Did you and your father always fight?"

His smile disappeared, and it hurt me inside. I hadn't meant to hurt him. He took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"Yes. Everyday, all of the time. He always told me what to do and when to do it. 'Michael, do this, Michael, do that. Michael, you're not standing the right way, Michael, if you don't get this right, I'll beat you senseless. Michael, I want you to sing _this_ way, Michael don't dance like that.'" I snickered a little as he mimicked his dad, which made him smile a little, but then he sighed and his mouth evened out. "I seriously hate people bossing me around. I tried to explain to him several times that I didn't like it when he did that to me, but knowing my father, he never listened to me. And to this day, he still doesn't. I honestly wish that my relationship with him and I could be better, but too many things have happened in the past for anything to turn back around anymore. Joseph Jackson is a very stubborn man, you know. I don't ever want you to meet him."

"I know you don't like your dad, but Mike, honey, I would really like to meet your family. I would like for him to at least know about me...you know, so there aren't any surprises or anything. I don't want him to be mad at you even more than he is already. Though I cant understand why he would be. You should be mad at _him_, for everything he did to you."

"I am. I hate him," he grumbled, his hands slowly balling into fists.

Seeing Michael angry scared me. I already saw him angry at _me_ not long before this. I wish that him and his dad had a better relationship with each other. Maybe I would understand a little more of why he sometimes looked so sad. Damn that Joseph Jackson.

"You don't hate your father, Michael."

"I do. I wish he was never in my life."

"Then what kind of help would your poor mother have gotten? Bein' a single mom, trying to get enough money in the household to feed and raise all ya'll?

He was silent for a moment, then he spoke. "You have a point."

"Katherine wouldn't have had any other support with her. Imagine how hard that would've been."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Its just, when I think about all of the things that he did to me, how many times he beat the living shit out of me-" He stopped himself. "I'm sorry for cursing. I know you don't like that. It's not a very good habit to develop."

"Its alright. Sometimes I lose control of myself too and can have quite a potty mouth. I understand your anger. Now you know how I feel towards my parents for doing this to me. Why would..." I trailed off.

"Kzinga, don't get upset over something that happened in the past."

"But I don't know where to go."

"What are you talking about? You're living here with me."

"Mike, I couldn't-"

"You said that you loved me," he said firmly. "Did you change your mind?"

I shook my head. "No! Never. I love you, Michael," I said, reaching my arms out to touch his cheeks. He placed his hands over mine.

"And I love you too, so that means you're staying here with me. You can tell your parents who you're staying with when you're ready."

I gave up. "Alright. Just to let you know, that'll be one hell of a surprise to them."

He laughed that Michael laugh. "Oh, _trust_ me. You don't even have to tell me that. I already know."

I leaned forward and kissed his brown lips, and he embraced me, a hand on one of my breasts.

It was silent for a while, but then I realized something, and stopped kissing him to peer over at the clock.

"Michael?" I asked, fear rising in me.

"What?"

"What time did Tatum say she was coming to pick you up?"

"Eight in the morning. Why?"

"Um, sweetie, would you mind looking at the clock?"

He looked past me at it, and his eyes widened. "God damnit! It's seven fifty-nine!"

"What do we do?"

Just as he was about to speak, the doorbell rang downstairs. He groaned and fell back on the bed, his hands on his face. "Great. This is _just_ great."

I jumped off of the bed frantically, and paced around naked.

"Hide! I have an idea," I heard him say. "Better yet, just stay up here with the door closed, lock it, and _don't_ open it for any reason at all. If you do...I'll punish you."

I laughed. "What? Punish me? In what way, if I may ask?"

"Don't worry about that. You just follow my instructions."

"Alright, alright, I wont open the door."

"You know what? I may just punish you anyways," he said with a smirk.

"Oooh, I'm scared of you." I scrunched up my face.

Michael grabbed the towel that he had on last night and walked out of the room to answer the door. I shut the door behind me and locked it like he told me to. I was his slave. His whore. Whatever he wanted, it was my job to abide by his rules whether I liked them or not, though I got a kick out of being a naughty little whore that he had to spank for good measure every once in a while. That was how much I loved Michael Jackson. I adored that man, and would do anything to make him happy, even if it cost me my life. The average person would probably think that I'm crazy, but they just don't understand. They don't, nor do they care to understand why Michael was really not even an angel, but how sometimes he reflected God himself . It was truly amazing thinking about the kind of power that man had. With the tip of his long fingers, and without him even realizing it, he could bend empires, kill an entire species (though he was way too beautiful to do such a thing), even enslave the world...if he wanted to. Knowing Michael, he probably wouldn't, but I'm just saying. That's the kind of power that he possessed. I suddenly heard the door open downstairs.

"_Hi Tatum," _he said.

"_Hi, babe. Well, I can see that you're not ready to go."_

I heard him laugh. _"I was actually getting ready to take a shower."_

"_I can wait," _I heard her say. That prick, I couldn't stand her. I could not _believe_ that we would be friends later on!

"_Actually, Tatum, I don't feel good."_

"_What's the matter?"_

"_I think I'm getting a cold, or something."_

"_Aw, you poor baby. I can drop by the store and get some-"_

"_No, no. You don't have to, but I think that I'll have to stay home today."_

"_Oh, that's too bad. Well, tomorrow then?"_

"_I promised Janet that I would hang out with her."_

"_Well, whenever. I'll just call you later then, okay?"_

"_Okay, bye."_

I heard the door shut, and fought hard to keep from laughing out loud. I heard the doorbell ring again, and knew that Tatum was getting suspicious, which made me smile.

"_What's wrong, Tatum?"_

"_You closed that door way too fast. Is someone here that I don't know about?"_

"_Now why would you think that?"_

"_Well, you're shaking-"_

"_Oh That's because...uh, I'm cold. Yeah, that's why. I think the temperature dropped last night. Ain't the house cold to you?"_ I heard him say.

"_No, it feels fine."_

"_Maybe its just me then-"_

"_Michael, what's going on?"_ she snapped, interrupting him.

"_Nothing."_

"_I don't believe you."_

Silence.

"_Tatum, seriously, there's no one here. See?"_

I heard a knocking on the wall downstairs.

"_See, knock knock. See? Nobody answered._

I was scared that Tatum was starting to get suspicious, but up in his-our-room, I laughed silently at how nervous Michael was. His voice was cracking every six seconds like he was still going through puberty.

At that moment, he reminded me of Richard Pryor and how nervous he was acting with Diana Ross in "The Wiz" when she found out that there was no Wiz after all.

"_Michael Jackson, tell me what's going on right now!" _Tatum demanded.

"_I told you, Tatum, there's no one here but me. And I still need to take my shower."_

Silence between the both of them.

"_Alright," _she said finally. _"Call me so you can tell me when you want to hang out, okay?"_

"_Okay, I will."_

"_I love you."_

"_You too," _he said.

I heard the door close again. I heard footsteps, and my heart beat fervently. Michael was getting closer and closer...

He knocked on the door, and I let him in.

"Man was that close."

"It sure was," I said. "You know, I feel kind of guilty for doing this."

"I know. Me too."

"Do you still love her?"

He turned around to face me. "No, not anymore."

"You have to tell her that."

"I know."

"When will you?"

"As soon as I can, but I cant do it anytime in the near future."

"Why not?"

"Because, I want to film my music video for 'Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough'."

"When?"

"Well, I was actually going to call Quincy and ask him what time today he wanted to do it."

"You want to grab something to eat first?"

"We don't have to go out. I have food here, you know," he said smiling.

I laughed, feeling ridiculous. "Sorry, I forgot."

"Its alright. Here, come on. Lets get dressed and then go downstairs to the kitchen."

"What am I gonna wear? All of my clothes are at my parents' house."

He snickered. "Just wear my clothes."

"Michael Joseph Jackson, now you and I both know that I cannot and I repeat _cannot_ fit your clothes. You're too skinny."

"Nonsense."

He walked over to his closet, fishing for clothes, though I doubted I would be able to fit them. He finally found a pair of jeans and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and threw them in my direction. Being the lousy catcher that I was, the clothes ended up falling on the floor in front of me, and Michael laughed at me.

"Wow, you really suck," he said.

"Shut up."

I picked them up, then searched the floor for my underwear and bra. When I found them, I put them on, then put on the clothes that Michael found for me. Much to my surprise, they fit perfectly.

"How can _this_ be?" I asked.

"I don't know, but they fit, so that's all that matters."

When I looked back up at him, he was already dressed. He wore jeans, like me, and a brown button-down shirt which really brought out his eyes.

"You look great, Mike!"

He gave me a to-kill-for, cheesy, adorable grin. He put his hands behind his back and swayed side to side.

"Thank you," he sang to me. I chuckled. He was such a cutie. "Come on, I'm hungry."

"Yeah, me too."

And with that, he grabbed me by the hand and led me to the kitchen.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine- Long Day

"Michael?"

"Yes?"

"When you said that you loved me, were you being serious?" I asked as we walked down the stairs.

He turned his face towards me. "What do you mean? Of course I was being serious. You think I just said that so I could get you to sleep with me?"

I broke into laughter. "Naw, you're not like that. I know that much. And even if you were...well, you already know that I wouldn't mind being your little toy."

He chuckled. "Yes, knowing you, Ziggy, you wouldn't mind, and I love playing with you. We played with each other for quite a while last night, don't you think?" he asked with a crooked smile.

"Oh yeah, definitely-" I cut myself off. "What did you call me?"

"I called you Ziggy," he said, tightening his grip on my hand in a loving manner.

"But, that isn't my name."

"You don't like your new nickname that I made for you?"

I looked at him. It wasn't that bad. In fact, the more that I thought about it, the more I grew fond of it.

"Of course I do, Mike. You can call me whatever you want."

Ziggy and Mike. I liked the sound of that.

We got to the kitchen, and as soon as we did, Michael was busy rummaging through the refrigerator, desperate for anything to eat. I walked in front of him, stopping him, and he sucked his teeth and stomped his left foot on the ground.

"What now? I'm hungry, woman! Quit stopping me," he exclaimed. I put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing at the cute little mini-tantrum that he'd developed.

"Well, you'll just have to wait anyways."

Michael narrowed his brown eyes at me, not looking very happy.

"Why do you torture me, baby?"

"Because I love you too much for you to just walk out of here without a substantial breakfast. So sit down. I'll cook."

"But, I-"

"I know you want to go soon, but I'm still making breakfast. You're too skinny Michael, and its because you don't eat what's really good for you or what fills you up."

He sighed. He knew that I was right. "Today, I'll be sure to fatten you up good."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I don't want to be fat," he said, whining playfully. That guy was so funny.

"I didn't say you would be, knucklehead. I just want you to be full before we leave."

Michael threw his hands in the air, it seeming as if he were finally giving in. "Fine."

He walked over to the table, and I got to work immediately.

Since I was pretty experienced, thanks to my now deceiving and unforgivable mother, Rosalind, I learned to make a damn good meal, especially omelets. But, since this was my childhood idol, long lost best friend, and just currently my lover that I was cooking breakfast for, I wanted to make more.

I didn't make something extremely big, but satisfying. Scrambled eggs, croissants with butter, a small bowl of cereal with a saucer of fruit on the side, and some coffee mixed with milk and sugar.

When I was finally done, I washed my hands, wiped them off on a hand towel that lay on the counter, and turned around to see Michael staring at me in shock.

"What, honey?" I asked. "You're not hungry no more?"

He didn't respond to me, just stared at me, eyes wide, mouth hanging.

"Michael...?Michael!"

He blinked a couple of times and closed his mouth, snapping out of it. "Sorry."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just...I...how did you learn to cook so well?"

I turned around towards the sink, and cleaned the spatula that I had used to flip the eggs with. He continued.

"Your cooking is amazing! I mean, you cook like my mother. Just like her! The same way. I'm just in disbelief, that's all. How did you learn?"

I turned back around in Michael's direction, and walked towards him. The look on his face reminded me of a kid's just then. The way his facial expression only simply expressed complete awe. I took the spatula and lightly tapped his cheek with it.

"Practice over the years, my sweet angel."

He looked into my eyes. I saw something in his eyes that I'd never seen before, and couldn't explain it. The closest I could get to it was a look of longing for something, and not something materialistic, but something deeper than all of that, all of which didn't matter underneath the surface of life. Michael Joseph Jackson looked at me with eyes of longing. This was a problem that later in the future would become more severe with him as our lives progressed, but I'll get into that later on in the story. Right now isn't the time.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I sucked my teeth.

"Don't you tell me 'nothing' , boy." Michael laughed at me, and I laughed too. "Tell me what the matter is. That look you gave me didn't just say 'nothing'."

"I cant really explain it."

"It's alright. You don't have to, baby."

I placed the spatula beside him on the table, and I climbed onto his lap. Both of my legs surrounded his waist, and my hands were on his throat. I leaned over and kissed the big lump on his throat, and as he chuckled, I felt it go up and down, and it tickled my eye.

"Michael, listen to me for a second."

"I'm listening."

"You have to promise me something."

"Anything, Ziggy."

I shuttered joyfully in my mind as he said my newly created nickname.

"Promise...promise that we'll always be together, no matter what. Promise me that you wont leave me, abandon me like my parents did. I don't have any other place to go if you leave me-"

"Now what did I tell you? I said I wouldn't, didn't I?"

I was thinking, but he interrupted.

"Didn't I?" he repeated.

"You did."

He forcefully tore me away from his chest, making me look at him. "So, why are you so worried?"

Deep in my heart, I knew the answer why. I was afraid that Michael was like any other person, but I knew that when I looked much deeper, he was one of a kind, which was the truth, not just my opinion.

"No reason, don't worry about it. You're right, I need to stop this crap."

"Damn right you do," he said to me with a smirk.

"Ready to eat?"

He nodded.

I got out some plates and began to serve him and myself, and we both sat down and ate quietly for a while at the table.

I looked out of the window and observed the high arches surrounding the house outside, how the sun beamed on them, making them glitter.

"Don't your parents live here, too?" I asked Michael after I finished.

"They used to. They live on the other side of town now. This whole house is mine now. Part of the reason why its so messy," he said laughing.

"Are you done?"

"Just about."

I took his plate and mine, and placed them in the sink.

"Alright, I think we're just about ready to go now,"

I said, the both of us getting up and heading for the door.

"Let me just-" Michael suddenly stopped and hiccuped loudly, then he snickered.

"What were you saying, honey?" I asked, grinning in replacement for laughing hysterically.

"Sorry about that," he said after he stopped laughing. "I was trying to say that...let me call Quincy, and tell him I'm on my way to the studio. He'll probably be there anyways, working on some stuff, so I'm sure he wont mind if we got started on the video early."

"Alright."

Michael walked over to the phone, which sat on a small counter next to the mantle piece. He picked it up and dialed Quincy's number.

"Hello, can I speak with Quincy, please?"

A few moments passed by.

"Hey, Q! Hey, listen, me and my girlfriend are going to come over to the studio so we can get started early. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Okay, I'll be there soon. Tell everyone to get busy right now so we can all hit it off when I get there. Okay, later man."

He hung up, and put the phone down.

"Come on, lets go."

We left the house and got in his car, me being in the passenger seat. Michael started up the car, and soon we were off. It was silent for a while, but then I got bored and turned on the radio. What I heard surprised me.

_Okay, everyone, were going to take you a couple of years back. Our next song is by The Jackson Five, and it's called "Who's Lovin' You". Enjoy, everyone._

_When I had you_

_I treated you bad..._

Michael and I laughed as we heard his ten year old self on the radio. Unfortunately, he tried singing along the way he did when he was actually that age, and in the end was staining his voice because he wasn't able to hit those high notes like he could when he was younger. I laughed extremely hard.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to tell me. I know I suck singing like this," he said still laughing.

"Uh, no, you don't. Sorry Mike, but you're definitely right on that one."

"Oh, shut up," he said playfully.

A felt a warm feeling inside of me, and had the strong urge to cuddle up against Michael, though he was driving. Since I wasn't able to hug him at the moment, I placed my head gently on his shoulder, and he put his head on mine. I still smelled activator grease in his hair, though his hair wasn't in jerry curls.

I sighed. "Thank you, Michael."

"For what?"

"Everything. Thank you for being you and no one else. I wish everyone in this whole damn world could be as kind and sweet and wonderful as you." With only just one hand on the steering wheel, he took his right arm and wrapped it around me, softly stroking my cheek.

I looked ahead, and saw the studio approaching in front of us, nearing as he drove. I'd already known that today was going to be pretty long. I took a long, deep breath and got myself ready for it.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten- Taken

Michael parked his car and we both walked out. We arrived in front of a door, which looked like it was the back entrance of the big building. For some odd reason, I began to get anxious. I didn't know how people would see me when I walked in. I hoped that they were friendly.

Michael knocked on the door a couple of times before someone opened the door. In the entrance way was a woman. She had short brown hair, bright blue eyes. She looked like she was in her late thirties.

"Good morning, Mr. Jackson," she said.

"Hey! What did I say about calling me that? Call me Michael." Michael smiled widely at the woman.

"Sorry," she said laughing. "I forget sometimes."

The woman then looked at me, and my heart jumped, but I stood still, letting her look over me.

"Who's this, Michael?"

He scratched his head and smiled. "My girlfriend."

I put my hand out in front of the woman. "Hi, my name's Kzinga."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jelina. I work with Michael and Quincy." She shook my hand kindly.

"Is everything set up?" Michael asked.

"Yes, you just need to get ready."

"Alright. Come on honey," he said to me.

We followed Jelina inside of the studio, and what I saw AMAZED me. There were people up on the ceilings with large cameras, making sure that everything was perfect. People were moving in and out of different rooms, and all of them were suddenly looking at Michael and myself. I was excited, but I wasn't used to any of this. Michael was. He grew up with people crowding around him. I never did.

"Kzinga, I'm going to go and change now. Okay?"

I didn't want him to leave me here alone. Oh no...there I go again being all needy. I was starting to sound like Tatum...bleh!

"Mike, I don't know anyone here, though."

"It'll be okay. It's just for a couple of minutes, baby. I'll be back soon, I promise. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then stay here real quick, and I'll be back."

I watched him walk away, and I sat down in a chair nearby. I wished that I had a book to read, but then I remembered how all of my things were at my parents' house. I lay back against the wall behind me and contemplated on everything that had happened in the last several hours.

Last night...goodness. Last night, something happened that I most definitely didn't expect to happen. I met the man that I had loved my whole life, and he just happened to be someone with extreme fame and popularity.

Whenever I was around Michael, he made me feel happy. I was never usually happy about anything. I sometimes hated life because of my parents...and Anthony. They all made my life a living hell, and I would never forgive them for it.

There was no doubt that I felt guilty about stealing Mike away from Tatum, but she just did NOT deserve him, and never will she. I observed the way she treats Michael when they're together, and I can tell that he hates it. She treats him like he means nothing to her, like he's her little play thing, or her little puppy that's supposed to follow her everywhere and obey. Well I can tell you right now, that's bullshit! Doesn't she understand that Michael is worth more than her sorry little white ass will ever be?!

Alright, alright...I know, you don't have to tell me. I need to calm down. I'm getting out of control. Let's go back to the point, shall we?

To me, and without me even realizing it until much later, Michael was like a fruit. Yes you heard me correct. A fruit. Let me tell you a little make-believe story of how I interpret what went down last night at the studio.

At some point in time, there was beautiful peach tree. This particular tree made its peaches the sweetest and ripest that they could ever be. One day, a big, juicy peach fell to the ground. Tatum found the peach on the same day as she was strolling around town.

You see, this peach only wanted to be eaten and loved. It didn't want to be alone, but Tatum didn't hear the peach's cries for help. She simply just threw it back to the ground and kept walking, not understanding how sweet that peach was capable of being if she just took a bite out of it.

The next day, I just happened to come across the same tree. I observed the peach on the ground and picked it up. I saw how delicious it looked, so I bit it and loved the taste, and the peach was happy.

Okay, so I know that that was a really crappy way of putting the situation, but I hope you get it. So anyways, there you have it. I didn't need Michael to tell me that he was miserable with Tatum, I already knew. That's how I know we belonged together. We always did.

I lost track of my train of thought by a certain someone tapping me on my forehead, and when I opened my eyes, I could barely recognize my own boyfriend.

"Like my outfit?" Michael asked.

I was too shocked to respond. Of course I liked it! He looked _amazing_! But then again, he always looked amazing, so that shouldn't have really meant much in my mind. Still, though, he was beautiful. He wore a white button-down blouse with a black dress jacket over it. On his legs were black trousers. He had on white socks that were pushed down to his ankles, and on his feet were black loafers. His hair was a big bushel of jerry curls. One curl was longer and fell over his face. There was no denying it, the man was completely gorgeous...as _usual_.

"Did you hear me, Kzinga?"

"Yeah, sorry. Yes! I love it! You look great, Mike."

"Thank you, baby girl," he said and stroked my cheek. Goose bumps rose to the surface of my skin where he had touched it.

"Sensitive skin, eh?" He chuckled.

"Only when you touch me," I said.

He quirked a brow at me. "Why is it different when _I_ touch you?"

I shrugged. "I have no way of knowing that, Michael."

I stood up to meet his level. I played with the little curl in his face, and he grabbed my finger by his teeth and tenderly dug them into the flesh. I winced slightly.

"Ouch, Michael."

"Sorry," he said, my finger still between his teeth.

I looked into his eyes. Those brown eyes. Eyes that you could get lost in for days. Eyes that are beautiful. Eyes that can KILL you. I hugged him suddenly, and he did the same. I felt protected with his big strong arms encircling my waist. Then I kissed him. Then I kissed him again. And...again.

"I love you so much, baby," I said.

"I know you do." He pursed his lips.

"Do you love me too?" I asked just above a whisper.

"Very funny." He bopped me on the head gently, then kissed my nose. I giggled.

"That tickles," I said.

I ticked him underneath his arms. That was his weak spot. He squealed and laughed, telling me to cut it out in between yells.

"Michael! We're ready for you now. Come on, time to start," a male voice called out to us.

I stopped tickling him and looked around to see people staring at the both of us. There was a young girl who looked to be about a couple years older than me who looked jealous. I guess that was the price that I had to pay for being with someone like Michael, and I'd better get used to it.

Michael groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Go on, honey. Make momma proud."

"Okay," he said and grinned. When he smiled all those pearly whites at me, I swear, it made me want to _scream_!

He gave me one final kiss and walked off to the set. The entire time, I was staring at his butt. Ya gotta love him! That man had a seriously _awesome _ass.

Just as Michael began to sing, I felt someone's presence behind me. When I turned around, my heart jumped in a not-so-good way. It was my ex-boyfriend. Anthony. Before I could say anything, he covered my mouth so that I wasn't able to scream, and dragged me away. I tried to struggle away from his grip as much as I could, but Anthony's grip was too powerful.

"Happy to see me, Kzinga? Good, cause you're not ever going to be with that Michael Jackson ever again. He's not good for you. You belong with me, you little bitch! Did you forget that?"

_Michael! Help me...please,_ I screamed in my mind. He couldn't see me being dragged away by Anthony. No one could. I turned around to see myself outside all of a sudden. Anthony put me in the back of his truck and tied ropes around me so that I wouldn't get away. As I looked behind me, I saw that Anthony had a gun in his hand.

"This should keep you quiet for a little while," he said and slammed the gun against the back of my head so hard that I blacked out.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven- Anthony

I woke up to a pounding headache and to the smell of alcohol and tobacco smoke. My mouth was still taped and I was still tied by ropes. As I observed my surroundings a lot more, I realized that I was in Anthony's house. On his couch. I lifted my head to see him standing in the corner..._watching_ me. Cigarette in one hand, a small bottle of whiskey in the other. That would explain the smell. When we were together, he would always mostly do those two of the three common things in our relationship, and it drove me up the goddamn wall. Drink, smoke and rape me. Anthony always wanted sex when I didn't, and he would force me into it. I gave in most of the time. There was no way that I could fight him. He was too strong and too old for me to defeat. By the way, I didn't tell you this before. Anthony is ten years older than me. Yes, I understand your shock. It's a _very _long story, and not worth explaining. So I'm not going to.

He would take his big arms and push me down on the bed....slap me a couple of times and tell me to behave. That's how it always was between the both of us. You see, the difference between Anthony and Michael is that Anthony always wanted me to do what he wanted. With Michael, I take _pleasure_ in doing what he says, simply because he just isn't the same person as Anthony is. Michael was sweet and loving, and wouldn't lay a finger on me, even if he was angry with me to the highest extent. Anthony would try to find every damn excuse in the book to hurt me, both physically and emotionally. I don't know what I saw in that man, to be honest. But that's why people call teenagers stupid, because underneath everything, we really don't know what the hell we're doing or what for.

"Well, my love, it seems like you're finally awake."

He moved closer to me. I resumed my struggling from the ropes with no such luck. He tied them to me pretty tight, and it was starting to hurt me, but really, what else was new with Anthony? At this point, I've just gotten used to his abusive ways. After all, I had to put up with them for two years before I met Michael.

He stood in front of me, still smoking his cigarette.

"You know, never did I think that you would end up with someone like Michael Jackson. I mean, shit! That guy's got it all. It's typical of you to want someone like him. I mean, he does have all that fucking money, so what else would you want him for?"

_That's not true, Anthony. None of that is true_, I wanted to tell him. Tape still covered my mouth, impeding me from speaking. I remained silent.

"Didn't you know that it wouldn't be smart to run away from me? Didn't you know that I would find you any-damn-way?"

He bent over and ripped the tape from my mouth. I cried out in pain. He slapped me hard to shut me up. Tears formed in my eyes and ran over, dripping off of my chin.

I looked out of the window next to me. It was getting to be late afternoon by the way the sun had angled itself in the sky. My heart cried out for Michael. I knew that he was going nuts right now, trying to look for me all over town.

"Anthony, you were never good for me. That's why I left you. Don't you know how to treat someone you love? Well obviously you didn't love me, because every single day that I was in your presence you beat me, fucked me...did anything you wanted. I left you because _obviously_ you hadn't changed, and I wanted a better life for myself. You put me through hell, you asshole!"

Oh no. I shouldn't have said that. And as I suspected, he slapped me across the face again. The corners of my mouth began to slowly run blood because he had hit me so hard. I stared into his eyes. What made him be like this? This was not the Anthony Reynolds that I had met two years ago. He was so much kinder, never hit me. What happened? What made him turn into this...this _monster_?

"Don't you ever call me that, you fucking whore! Next time, I'll shoot you with my gun."

"Why didn't you just kill me in your truck? You could have, yet you resisted. Why?"

He grew angrier. "Don't question me, Kzinga."

I struggled harder to be free of the ropes, but I still wasn't able to break free of them. I felt like a slave. I thought we were _past_ the point of putting black people in slavery? Well. Obviously _that_ didn't do shit, because I'm being held prisoner by my crazy ass ex-boyfriend.

Suddenly, Anthony jumped on top of me, slowly stripping me of my clothes. The first to go were my pants...my t-shirt, then finally my underwear. Those clothes were Michael's. He took Michael's clothes away from me. All that I had on was my bra. He slowly got on top of me as I struggled against him. He slapped at me some more, telling me to stop.

"You're going to like it this time. I promise..." he whispered. And with that, he invaded my vagina. I lay there motionless, giving up. I let him fuck me. I let him get what he wanted. Again.

. . .

"Okay everyone, its time to take a lunch break," Quincy called out to everyone. I was beat! We'd been working for a couple of hours, and it was almost late afternoon. We had begun at noon. Jelina came by my side at once and handed me a cloth to wipe myself with. I was sweating like crazy!

"Thank you," I said to her politely.

"Don't mention it. I'll be in the other room if you need me."

"Okay."

I turned around, expecting to see Kzinga sitting in the same spot I had seen her last when I realized that she was nowhere to be found.

"What in the..."

A surge of panic rose inside of me. I went around, asking everyone if they'd seen her recently. They all said they hadn't.

"Damn it! Where did she go?!"

I was on the verge of insanity looking for her. Where could she have gone? She wouldn't just up and disappear for no reason at all. Then...it came to me. Something bad must have happened to her. But if that was the case, how was it that no one else could see it? Damn, I guess people here were so busy that they didn't notice anything except their priorities. I sat down and thought for a minute, frustration building inside of me.

I suddenly remembered something. Kzinga had said to me last night before we made love with each other. Something about this guy named Anthony that she dated a long time ago. She didn't tell me outright, but I knew that he was abusive by the way that her face fell when she spoke his name. Wait a second...shit! That was it! He must have kidnapped her! But where would he have taken her?

It couldn't be out in the open where everyone would see the both of them. The only thing that I could think of was inside somewhere. A house! _His _house! But...where was it? I would have to ask someone on the street.

"Quincy!" I yelled.

Quincy turned to face me. "What is it, Michael?"

"Come with me. We have to find Kzinga."

"What happened to her?"

"She was kidnapped by that crazy ex-boyfriend of hers. I know that's what happened, and I need to find her."

"Well, dude, come on! Let's go!"

Quincy and I headed out to the parking lot where my car sat patiently. I let him drive and me be in the passenger seat. We rode all around Los Angeles looking for her. I was worried sick! I hadn't known Kzinga for very long, but she was so special to me already. It was about a half an hour with no such luck of finding her. As Quincy kept driving, I started to cry.

"Hey, hey. Don't worry man. We'll find her."

"If we don't hurry, she could die. She might be dead already." I sobbed harder.

"Michael, she's not dead. Just keep your cool. We _will_ find her. Stop crying, man."

"I cant help it, Q. I love her. If anything happened to that girl, I swear to god..."

"Trust me, she's okay. But you're right. We do need to hurry. Look, there's a guy right there. Maybe he knows the address."

He stopped the car, and I climbed out to stop the person.

"Sir, excuse me," I said.

"Oh my gooood! Michael freakin' Jackson! Please! Can I have an autograph?"

"Sir, I don't have time right now. I need to know if you know a man by the name of Anthony Reynolds."

The man's facial expression changed. He seemed to get the message that I was in a hurry at the moment.

"Yeah, sure. Anthony? He lives about three blocks from here. The cross streets are Sage Boulevard and Liberty Avenue."

"Thank you very much."

I got back in the car.

"Quincy, ride like hell! Now!"

He put the car in drive mode and we sped off.

A glint of hope showed itself inside of me. And in my mind, I kept thinking to myself, _She's alive, she's alive, she's alive... _She just had to be alive, or I would never forgive myself. That girl was my soulmate, and we belonged together. I'm not complete without her._  
_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve- Who Is It?

"Anthony, please!"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm not finished with you yet." He took both of my arms and twisted them. When he did that, it brought back a flashback of us together. One night, we got into our very first argument. I don't remember exactly what I had said to make him so upset, but it was obviously something that stunned him, because he took my left arm and twisted it back so much that it snapped. He apologized, saying that he didn't mean it and took me to the hospital. When my parents asked me what happened, I lied and told them that I fell down the stairs, not wanting Anthony to get upset with me again.

"I know you're not like this. I know you're not," I said as he raped me over and over. I'd decided to give up hope.

I was never going to see Michael again. Hell, I wouldn't see _anyone_ ever again. After Anthony was done toying with me, he would kill me, then dispose of me later on. Well, at least I got to see Michael. I got to see my one and only love. The only person who I would say yes to in a heartbeat if he asked me to marry him, but I knew that I would never do that now. If I'd just made the right decision long ago and not even have fallen for Anthony's tricks, I would still have the chance to live life with the one that I truly wanted to live life with. If I had another chance...

But I didn't. It was time for me to die. I wonder what life was like in Heaven. At least I wouldn't have to live a life of scrutiny like I had to endure here on Earth. I enjoyed my last visions of life...or at least tried to. It was very hard with Anthony digging his nails into my thighs to do such a thing.

He finished his business and got off of me, zipping up his jeans."I'll be sure that no one finds you when you're dead."

_Well, God, here I come. Save a place for me when I get up there so that I wont have to go through the trouble of looking for one myself._

He picked up his gun and aimed it at me. I stared into the blackness of the hole, knowing once and for all that this was my fate. I shut my eyes.

_I love you, Michael._

A large banging sounded, but it wasn't the sound of a gun, and I didn't feel anything. I quickly opened my eyes. It was the front door. What I saw shocked me. Michael stood there with a gun in his _own_ hand. I was shocked! I never imagined him with any kind of weapon in his possession. The gun was aimed at Anthony.

I looked at Michael. His eyes reflected savage, wild, blood-thirsty, hungry for kill. This wasn't Michael. This was someone else. Not my Michael. Not him. It couldn't have been him. His breaths came out heavy, and he had the gun ready to shoot. At the moment, I think that I was more scared of him than I was of anything else, Anthony included.

"Unbind her. NOW!"

"Michael Jackson. My, my. It's a pleasure to meet you sir. May I have an autograph?"

"Go fuck yourself," Michael quipped.

Anthony turned around and aimed the gun at Michael.

"Anthony! No! Please, don't shoot him," I said.

"And why the fuck not?"

"Because...you just cant shoot Michael. You cant."

"I know the reason why. You _love_ him. Well, isn't that sweet?"

"Anthony, please I'm begging you."

He turned his face to me. "Well then, would you rather me kill you instead?"

I didn't answer. I didn't have one for that.

He turned back around. I looked around the room for no particular reason, but I was glad that I did, because next to me was a small dresser. Without Anthony noticing, I was able to reach my hands far enough to open the first drawer. In it was a knife. Success! I grabbed it, then as silent as I could, cut away at the ropes holding me down.

"Anthony, let her go," I heard Michael say.

"Tell me Mr. Jackson," he said sarcastically, "Why do you so strongly believe that Kzinga needs you more than me?"

"Because she told me about you. You beat her constantly. You didn't take care of her like you were supposed to. I would NEVER lay a finger on her. So let go of her while you're still alive. You don't deserve her. You never did. _I do_. So let her go, or I promise that you'll never see the light of day again. And trust me, Anthony, I keep my promises. _Always_."

"You don't have the balls to kill me. You're just a big softee. Quit bluffing, Jackson."

Worry flickered in Michael's eyes, but he held his position. "Let her go," he repeated.

"No!"

Michael walked towards me. Anthony clicked his gun. "Take a step further, and I'll kill you both."

I struggled just a little more with the ropes, and I was free. I grabbed the knife and jumped on top of Anthony.

"What the hell? I thought I tied you up!"

"I broke free, asshole."

I took the knife in my hand and stabbed Anthony in his back. He wasn't aware of his aim, and a shot broke away.

Suddenly, I heard Michael give out a blood-curdling scream, and my heart stopped. Anthony fell to the floor, wincing in pain, a spot of blood on the back of his shirt where I had stabbed him. As soon as he was on the floor, I ran to Michael. He lay on the floor too, the gun no longer in his hand, but laying beside him. Unused.

"Michael! Are you okay, baby?"

He didn't respond. I saw blood running from his body, but couldn't tell where it was at. He turned his body, and I was relieved to see that it was from his arm. I had feared too much that it was from his heart.

"I'm going to take you to the hospital, okay?. I'm going to save you, I promise."

I stroked his hair sweetly. He smiled weakly at me. Moments later, swarms of police came in. They loomed over Anthony, who looked up at them with horrified eyes.

"Anthony Reynolds, you're under arrest for physical abuse and attempted homicide," one policeman said. Two of them picked him up and brought him outside as he struggled.

"I'll get you, you fucking bitch! I promise you I will find you, and I really will kill you. You can bet on that."

Fear rose in me, but I didn't take my eyes off of Michael. Moments like these shouldn't be wasted.

"Hold on, okay? Just hold on. I wont let you bleed to death," I said to him, tears in my eyes.

"I know," he struggled to whisper. I shushed him softly.

"Don't talk, Michael. Save your strength." I bent over and kissed his forehead lightly.

I noticed Quincy in the doorway staring at us. It would have been very awkward under other circumstances, but this was literally a life or death circumstance. If I didn't hurry and get Michael under medical care soon, I would lose him forever. I asked Quincy to help me get him outside. With his help, we carried Michael outside and placed him gently in the back of the car.

. . .

As Quincy drove to the nearest hospital, I sat in the back with Michael, comforting him. I held his hand as he slowly drifted off to sleep. I noticed a blanket on the floor of the car, and picked it up, then covered Michael in it.

"Quincy, how much farther?" I asked.

"About ten minutes away."

"Okay, thank you."

I peered over at my lover sleeping peacefully. "We're almost there, honey. Just hold on..."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen- Whatever Happens…

"Quincy, are we almost there?"

"Nope. We're here now."

I peered over to Michael. The blanket was all covered in his blood. But…why was he bleeding so fast? The only wound that he had was from his arm…right?

I pulled the blood-stained blanket away from his body and lifted his white blouse. He was shot in the abdomen too! Damn that ex-boyfriend of mine. Why was it that I heard only one shot, though? I had no idea that it was two. Great. More stress to deal with. My poor sweet Michael was dying right in front of me, and it was all my fault.

Quincy parked the car, then ran over to the back seat, where Michael lay now not sleeping, but unconscious.

"Don't worry, I got him," he said, picking Michael up. He didn't bother to lock the car. As we ran to the hospital entrance, the people around us screamed. I also thought I heard some girl crying. Camera flashes made our vision mess up a little, but we managed to get to the door. When we got inside, the people from outside were running into the building. The security guards at the doors instantly stood at the entrance and tried their hardest to keep the people from coming inside. We saw a lady at the front desk.

"Ma'am, _please_. You have to help us," I said, crying again.

The woman looked at us in shock. "Is that…"

"Yes. Its Michael Jackson, and he needs medical attention IMMEDIATELY, or he'll die ."

She got up from her chair quickly and ran over to us. "Well, yes! Of course. Hold on a second." She turned her head and called out to a man in navy scrubs. "Wendell, get me a bed. Now!"

The man immediately went running off in the other direction. Doctors and nurses suddenly crowded around us. The woman receptionist leaned over Michael. "What happened? How does this girl even _know_ him?" she asked Quincy.

"It's a long story. We'll explain later."

I looked down at Michael. His breathing became small, strong gasps, and his lips were beginning to lose its color. His skin looked a little bit grayish too. Shit, these people needed to hurry.

Suddenly, a white cot on wheels strolled towards us. The woman from the front desk took Michael from Quincy and carefully laid him on it. I began to panic.

"Can you save him? Please tell me that you can. You don't understand, he means everything to me. I need him, or I cant live. I NEED HIM! Please...you have to save him."

She gave me a grave look. "We'll do our best, sweetheart, but he's in very critical condition. We might not be able to."

When I heard that...I swear to you I felt like killing myself. If Michael didn't make it through..._God_, what was I going to do? I could not live life without him. What would all of his fans think, knowing that I was the fault of their idol's death? I don't know how I would deal with that. What would _Tatum _think? What about...his mother, Katherine?

Okay, I just needed to calm down. I had to keep telling myself that everything would end fine. He would make it through. Michael was a strong black man. He would make it through. I knew he would...wouldn't he? Oh God, here I go again. He WOULD make it through. He will. He will, he will, he will...

"Ziggy..."

I heard a soft, raspy voice call my name. I looked down at the person who owned that voice. Michael coughed up a little blood, and tears fell down my face. I grabbed his hand. It was cold. So cold...

"Mike," I said, trying to smile, but found it very hard. How could I smile when Michael Joseph Jackson was on the verge of never breathing again? There was no way you could smile about that. For what purpose? What kind of meaning would it have brought?

"Michael, I promise you, you will live. I promise, baby. I wont let you die."

"Kzinga, they have to take him into the ER now. You have to let go of his hand," Quincy said.

"No! I'm not leaving him. He needs me."

"Right now, he needs his life more."

That stopped me in my tracks. Yes, he was right. I reluctantly let go of sweet Michael's hand and let it drop next to him. They rolled him away, and Quincy and I sat in the waiting room. For about a half an hour, neither of us talked. How could we when our dear friend may have died already?

But I needed to talk. It would drive me crazy if I kept talking in my mind about this.

"Quincy."

He looked over at me.

"I...I'm so sorry I put you through this. You shouldn't have to go through this. This is all my fault, and I-I just...I...oh God!" I put my hands in my face and began to cry again. "This is all my fault, Quincy. I feel so terrible."

He scooted over to me and put an arm around me. "No, it's not your fault, Kzinga," he said thoughtfully. "Anthony is who he is. You have _nothing _to do with that man's madness. You were just one of the victims."

"I still feel like its my fault. Michael may be dead in that other room, and ITS ALL BECAUSE OF ME! All because of me..."

I put my arms around his neck and allowed myself to cry on him. He rubbed my back sweetly, whispering that it would be okay. I cried harder.

. . .

Eventually, I had cried myself to sleep. I wasn't exactly sure how long I _was_ asleep, but it felt like a while. I felt a shaking motion. Someone was trying to wake me up. Was it Quincy? I slowly opened my eyes, and as my vision became less blurry, I realized that there was a doctor in front of me. It wasn't Quincy.

"Wake up, honey," he said. I slowly sat up and looked into his eyes. He looked kind. He also had a smile on his face. Could it be...?

"What is it, sir?" I asked him.

"Well, it seems as if Michael is a very strong guy after all. He made it through. We were able to get both bullets from his arm and abdomen out. All he has to do now is recover. He's awake now, if you want to see him."

"Wait...Michael made it? You mean to tell me that he's ALIVE?"

The doctor nodded kindly.

"Yes! Please! Let me see him! I have to see him."

"Right this way."

I looked back at Quincy. He was crying tears of joy. As I put my hand up to my _own_ face, I realized that I was too. I couldn't believe it! He made it! All of the worry and sadness that I had felt for what seemed like ever was rushed out of me and replaced with happiness. The happiness that I lacked my entire life.

Quincy and I followed the doctor to Michael's room. He opened the door, and there he was. Michael's natural golden-caramel skin complexion was restored, and his eyes looked bigger and browner than ever before.

"Michael...? Baby cakes, is that you?" I asked.

"It is." Even his voice was back to normal. His eyes flickered happily, and he smiled.

I wanted to run over to him and hug him, but then I remembered that he was still recovering, and I stayed put.

"H-how're you feeling?"

"Much better than yesterday," he said, laughing.

"Wait…_yesterday_?"

"Yeah. We've been here since eight last night. It's now six in the morning."

"_Really_?"

He nodded.

I don't know why exactly, but tears welled in my eyes again. "I'm so glad that you're okay. I thought you were going to…" I couldn't say it. I just couldn't.

"I'm glad I'm okay too. Heaven would've been so lonely without you, Ziggy."

I bit my lip, fighting back the urge to cry again. I didn't want Michael to see me as some weak child. I had to be strong. I had to be…but _damn_. How could I be when I was so close to losing my best friend? Michael was the only person in the world now that cared about me and loved me.

If he left me too, who would be the one to hold me late at night and stroke my cheek as I cried? Who would be the one to cuddle me close and protect me from my weaknesses? Without him, I'm naked, fighting against the entire world helplessly forever on.

He made me strong. If he weren't with me, I would become weak, become vulnerable again like I once was before he ever so gracefully came into my life.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" he asked me softly.

"Mike…I'm sorry, this is all my fault. It's my fault that you were shot. I'm so sorry, baby. If you hate me, then I wouldn't blame you. I hate myself. Please forgive me."

His face became serious. "Now, you _know_ I don't hate you. Why would I hate you? You _saved_ me. Does it make much sense for me to hate someone that saved my life? No. not really."

I laughed through my tears. "If you did, you wouldn't be you."

"True, I wouldn't be."

I couldn't help it anymore. I let out a small wail. I sounded like such a child. This was exactly what I didn't want to do. I guess I just wasn't in control of my emotions very well. My newly shed tears fell down my cheeks and dropped onto the floor. Michael sighed. "Come here."

I walked over to him, then knelt down beside him. "What is it, Michael?"

"Do me a favor."

"Anything, baby," I said, touching his face.

"Don't cry anymore."

When he said that, it only made me cry harder.

"Kzinga, please don't cry, honey. I'm alright. Look! I'm okay, sweetheart."

I placed my head on his lap and continued to cry.

"Michael," I sobbed, "I cant help it. I feel so bad. Its like you said two nights ago when we first met: you could be out having fun, but instead you have to deal with people like me. If it weren't for me, you could be at the studio right now maybe recording new music or filming your video. I always hold you down with my shit."

"Kzinga...you will always mean more to me than my music."

My heart jumped. "Michael! Don't you ever say that. Your music is very important. You wouldn't be who you are without it. And compared _to_ it, I'm nothing important."

He suddenly did something that shocked me to all ends. He hit me. Not hard, but just a light tap on my cheek. It still stung a little. "You are everything to me. Absolutely everything." He smiled empathetically.

"I love you, Michael..."

"I love you more, sugar."

I rose to my feet, and he grabbed my arm. "Hey. Don't keep beating yourself up like this. Its not good for your health. Listen to me very closely."

I leaned forward.

"You've spent your entire life being unhappy. I didn't just come into yo' life for you to be all sad and mopey and shit, okay?"

I broke into laughter. He was right. "I know."

"I want you to be happy. All I'm asking for is a little smile every once in a while, okay?"

I nodded and smiled at him. He reached his hand up to my face. "That's my girl."

"You are such an angel. Sometimes I wonder if you're even human."

Michael broke into laughter himself. "Oh believe me. I'm as human as human gets. No different."

"Yes. You _are _different. You're Michael Jackson."

He smiled, then gave me a funny face that made me giggle. I looked into those eyes of his again. Those _beautiful_ brown eyes. I heard ABBA's single "Dancing Queen" playing quietly over the intercom. Then Michael had to ruin the mood by saying one little thing that damn near messed up my whole day.

"By the way, I'm enrolling you at Aviva High School in downtown L.A."

"WHAT? No! Michael, I may be sixteen, but I'm still your girlfriend, and I'm _not_ going to school. Home school me please. You know, like what you did when you were my age."

"No. I want you to be around people around your age. You start next week."

"God, you sound like my father. Except, my real dad doesn't care about me very much."

He smiled. "Precisely why I'm doing his job for him. You'll like it, trust me."

I groaned and put my hands to my forehead, and he laughed loudly. Great. High School. This was SO not fair, and it looked like Michael seemed to be enjoying it. But my tensions eased as I looked over at his face. That face. That angel-carved face of his. My heart immediately melted after that. Damn him for being so frickin' beautiful, but I guess it just couldn't be helped, could it? Michael couldn't help the fact that he was so perfect.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen- A Few Days Later...

So everything was back to normal…well, not _everything_. Michael was allowed to leave the hospital and the both of us return home, but he still had to take it easy so that he could fully recover. But other than that, we were now at home doing whatever. Right now though, he and I were arguing.

"Michael, I told you, no! _I'm_ cooking dinner. I don't want you to get hurt again. Do you want your wounds to open and then me take you to the hospital again? No. So sit yo' ass right there and don't move."

"But I'm fine! I'll be fine! Cooking isn't going to make anything happen, silly girl," he said, rolling his eyes. He was pretty annoyed with me.

"I know…but still. I just don't want anything to happen, that's all. You're all I have left of life, Mike. And back at the hospital, I think I almost died myself when the lady told me you might not have made it."

He stared at me. "She told you that?"

I nodded, revisiting in my mind that horrible ordeal. I prayed to God that I would never have to go through something like that again, but this definitely taught me a lesson. Choose your boyfriends wisely, and make sure that they don't go all corrupt and shit later on in life. I had to learn this the hard way, as I do many other things.

Michael began to walk towards me. He stopped in front of me, then turned my face upwards to look into his eyes. Man, he was so _tall_.

"You know, when I was unconscious, there was still something inside of me that told me to keep holding on, keep breathing. You know why?" His voice was a sweet whisper. "I did it for you. If I didn't care about you, I would have died, and I swear to you that I'm not lying. It's true. I know I would have. I wouldn't have made it if you meant nothing to me. So literally, you did save my life. You saw me on Anthony's floor dying, you carried me to the car. You held my hand as I was so very close to death. You told me that I would make it. I made it because of you, no one else. So thank you...and it's not your fault. Nothing was ever your fault."

I looked down, ashamed. "I don't know about that..."

"_Kzinga_." The sound of his voice made me shiver. "Nothing was ever your fault. Ever!"

I sighed.

"Now cut it out. Without you, I would be DEAD. Stop blaming yourself. That's all you been doin' since we got back from the hospital...saying how its all your fault. Stop it! Damn..."

He was beginning to walk away and into the kitchen, but he turned around. I was tugging at my hair. I usually did that when I was upset. He saw me, and his face went sympathetic.

"I'm sorry. That was mean."

"No, it's okay," I lied. "You're right. I have to stop doing this to myself."

He heaved a long sigh, then walked over to me again. "I just don't want you to keep blaming yourself, is all. You did something good, Ziggy. You _saved_ me. Do you know how happy I am to be alive? I would've hated being in Heaven knowing I could've accomplished _so_ much more while I was still here on Earth. For eternity, I wouldn't have been happy." He gave me a half-smile and took my hands in his. "Don't make me break out the song, now."

"What? What song?"

He gave me a grin, showing all of his teeth. Why couldn't my teeth be like his? Life was so unfair. He took a deep, silent breath and began to sing slowly:

_Smile though your heart is aching_

_Smile even though its breaking_

_When there are clouds in the sky, you get by_

_If you smile through all fear and sorrow_

_Smile, there may be tomorrow_

_You'll find that life is still worthwhile_

_If you, my darling, just smile_

When he finished, he took his hand and slowly snapped my mouth shut. I hadn't realized that it was open. And as he wished me to do, I smiled for him. With all of the feeling that I had inside of me, I smiled for Michael Joseph Jackson.

"Now _that's_ what I wanna see," he said and I giggled, happy that he was happy. He suddenly laid his lips on mine. It was the first time he had kissed me since before I was kidnapped by Anthony.

"Baby..." I murmured against his mouth. He placed his arms around my waist, and I wrapped mine around his neck. He began to kiss my entire face slowly, seductively...I knew what he wanted, and was glad to give it to him...just not at that moment because I was excruciatingly hungry. I hadn't eaten in _days_, I realized. I needed to eat something. So did he. I forgot completely about dinnertime.

"Michael...Michael, honey listen to me for a second," I said, giggling, because he was tickling me.

"Hm?" I heard him say, muffled-like. His face was digging in my neck.

"What do you want for dinner?"

He lifted his face to look at me, a weird smirk on his face. "You really wanna know?"

"Um...maybe not, but tell me anyways."

He laughed. "Fried chicken!"

"FRIED CH-" I cut myself off by laughing hysterically. Lord, you could tell the boy was black.

He counted off what he wanted with his fingers, "And collard greens, and biscuits, and mac and cheese, and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow_ down_, sweetie. How about just some chicken, collard greens and biscuits?"

He nodded like a little kid about to get ice cream. "Yes please, mommy."

I snorted. "All right."

We walked to the kitchen, and he sat at the table, waiting.

I prepared the food, humming to myself. I was so happy that I was cooking for him. To me, it never seemed like work I didn't want to do. I always did it with a genuine smile on my face. Anything to make Michael happy...

"Okay, all done."

I set the food on the table, along with two glasses of coke.

"Hope you enjoy your...dinner?"

My sentence slowed down because what I saw him doing in front of me had to be one of the funniest things _ever_. As soon as I set the food down, he became a total monster! He savagely attacked the poor biscuits like they were nothing. Lord have mercy, that boy. I swear, sometimes I just didn't know what to do with him.

"Jesus, Michael! One at a time please. Before you get a stomachache."

He wasn't listening.

"Michael!"

He looked up from his plate, his mouth full of food. Crumbs rolled off of the corners of his mouth. I had to laugh at that.

"I heard you," he said, his words barely audible. Michael quickly chewed and swallowed. "You don't get it, girl. You wasn't the one in a hospital for three days. And let me tell you, they give you some nasty ass food, man. Hopefully, I don't ever eat that shit again."

He made me laugh harder. "Okay, okay, I get it. But still. Eat slower, please. When you eat too fast, you get gas a lot more easily, and I _know_ you don't want to go through _that_ all night. And trust me, neither do I-"

"Okay, I get the point! I'll eat slower. Jeez..." He pointed at the chair across from him. "Sit down and eat with me. Quit chattin', woman."

I did as he told me. He ate a little slower, but it wasn't that much of a difference than before. I still thought he was eating too fast, in my opinion. It was nice to see him get his fill, though. He was _way_ too skinny. That boy needed some meat on his bones. Speaking of meat...Michael seemed to be picking at one of his chicken bones. His lips and fingers were covered in grease and there were crumbs all over his mouth. And you _know_ it was damn sexy!

We ate in silence the entire time. Not because we were mad at each other, but simply because we were both deprived of any kind of real food for several days. As I looked down at the big plate in the middle of the table, I realized that everything was gone. Damn! Michael ate all of THAT? I made myself a mental note to cook something bigger next time.

Eventually, I finished as well, but it took me longer. He was just a naturally fast eater.

"Full?" I asked.

He nodded, then he winced.

"Oh no. What's wrong?"

He smiled. "My stomach hurts a little."

I sucked my teeth. "I _told_ you not to eat fast, but you weren't listening to me. You were too busy stuffing your face to hear my voice in your ears. There was a bigger voice saying 'eat more, Michael! Eat more!' and now look at 'cha."

He snickered at that, but when he saw my face, he looked down and smiled at himself. "It doesn't hurt that much, you know. Just a little."

I sighed. "Alright, whatever. Just means you wont get no dessert tonight."

"What? No! Please, I want some ice cream. My tummy doesn't hurt anymore. It was just for a quick minute."

"Just now you were saying it hurts, though!"

"I know," he said and giggled. "But it went away while you were talking."

Sometimes I just did _not_ understand Mike. The way he would confuse me, though, was just adorable!

"Fine, but eat it slow. I don't want you to get sick."

"Yeah, yeah..." He rolled his eyes and snickered.

I picked up our plates and placed them in the sink.

I got the ice cream from the freezer and served the both of us. I set Michael's bowl in front of him, and he grinned happily, then began eating. I walked over to him and kissed his cheek. He kissed mine, leaving a smudge of melted ice cream on my face.

"Eww, Mike! Gross," I said and giggled.

"Dinner was good, baby. Thank you."

I shrugged. "Eh, it was nothing."

He took a scoop out of the bowl, then placed the spoon on my nose. It was all covered in white.

"Hey!" I yelled.

He laughed at my appearance.

After I wiped my nose off, I sat down across from him, and we both ate our dessert, then I got started on the dishes. Michael helped by drying them off and putting them away when I handed them to him. When we finished, I asked him what he wanted to do.

"Let's dance!"

"Say what?" I looked at him. Was he out of his damn mind?

"Yeah, come on."

He led me to the living room and turned on the stereo. "I Want You Back" began to blast through it. I was reluctant at first, but loosened up a little bit after. We danced wildly for about twenty minutes, him laughing at me the entire time because I danced like I was constipated. What? I didn't tell you I had two left feet? Well, yes. Though Michael and I had many things in common, the one thing that I absolutely could NOT do that _he could _was dance.

"Oh, leave me alone. I'm having a good time. Don't mess it up."

"Alright, alright," he said. "Okay, that's enough, now. Time for bed."

"But...its not even nine yet!"

"Did you forget you have school tomorrow?"

My heart sunk. I did forget about that, but didn't admit it.

"No."

"Come on. Lets go shower and get in bed."

I followed him upstairs. He undressed me, I undressed him. I was tempted there in the bathroom. With my fingers, I crawled up Michael's chest, but he pushed me away.

"Not tonight, baby girl."

"Why?"

"If we have sex tonight, you already know we ain't gon' stop 'til tomorrow morning, and you'll be tired."

"True, I'll be tired, but I'll be happy. And besides, back downstairs, before we stared eating dinner, you looked like you wanted it." I raised an eyebrow.

"That was before I remembered you had school. You need your rest, honey."

I pouted. He suddenly walked behind me and proceeded in massaging my shoulders. He placed his lips to my right ear. "When you get home from school tomorrow, okay?" His hands were now cupping my breasts.

I turned around to face him and nodded. "Yes, your Majesty."

He chuckled, then pushed me into the bathtub.

We showered together, him insisting on scrubbing me. I felt like a baby, but since I've been with Mike, I've felt like that a lot lately, and actually, I was beginning to get used to it.

"Sweetie, why are you so tense?" he asked me.

"I don't know."

"_Relax_. It's just me. Just Michael." He kissed me as the warm water streamed down our heads. Why couldn't I have picked him first instead of Anthony? Michael was what I always needed. How could I have been so stupid to choose just the opposite? Man, I was an _idiot_.

Afterwards, we dried off, got dressed in our pajamas (I had to borrow some of his clothes because I still didn't have any of my own yet), and we got in bed. When we got settled, I quickly became drowsy. Seems like Michael was right about going to bed early, but then again, he was right about a lot of things. I really should listen to him more often.

He turned his body towards me. "Want me to sing you a lullaby?"

"Hmm..." was all I managed to say. He laughed at me.

"Okay, I'll just take that as a yes."

He hummed "Beautiful Dreamer", and stroked my forehead. In a matter of moments, I was sound asleep. Yes, there was no doubt that school was going to be stressful tomorrow, but I would do it for Michael. No one else. Anyone besides him didn't deserve to have things done for them. Only him. He was worth it. He was always worth it...


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen- Reluctant to Leave the House

"God, I really don't want to do this."

"Well, guess what? You're going to, because I said so."

"Mike, I really think we should reconsider this."

He laughed humorlessly. "What's there to reconsider? Number one, I already enrolled you, second of all, you're going to be late if you don't get out of here right now." He gestured over at the clock on the mantelpiece.

"But, _Michael_…" I whined. "Why can't I just stay here with you?"

"Because your education is very important. Remember, I'm and adult. You're not. I had my education already, and you need yours still. I'm doing this for your benefit, whether or not you want to believe it. You have everything you need in your backpack."

He turned me around and unzipped my bag. "Let's see…your books, pencils…"

"What about my lunch?"

"I made that for you this morning while you were still sleeping."

"Wow. You actually got up early? Talk about shocking."

He sucked his teeth. "Oh, hush up. Now get out of here! Do you see what time it is?"

I looked over at the clock. It read 8:20. My first class began at 8:30. Needless to say, only had ten minutes to get there. I sighed.

Michael brought me close to him and pulled me into a warm embrace. At that moment, he filled my heart with longing. I longed to only be with him, not at some school that I hardly knew about.

"Everything's going to be okay. You're going to be fine. And when you get back, I'll be here."

"Are you staying here at home for the whole day?"

"No, I'm going out, but I'll be here by the time you get back from school."

"Alright," I said quietly. "Can I at least kiss you before I go?"

"No."

"You...you don't want me to kiss you?"

He broke into laughter. "Jeez, you're so _gullible_."

I gave him a serious look.

"Oh, come on. I was kidding! Lighten up," he said, playfully pushing my arm. I smiled, and he chuckled at me. "Quit being so serious all the time."

"Yeah...guess I got to work on that, huh?"

He laughed in a matter-of-factly kind of way. "Uh, yeah? Like, you REALLY need to work on that-"

"Shut up and kiss me, already!"

I giggled when I saw his face expression.

"_Excuse_ me, but I don't believe I'll be kissing you with _that _kind of attitude, young lady." He folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

I decided to mock him. "Aw, come _on_, Michael. I was kidding. Lighten up." I raised my eyebrows at him and gave him an obnoxious, crooked grin.

"Oh, you're hilarious. In fact, I'm laughing so hard that you cant even tell. I think I forgot how." He took his hand and lightly hit my forehead. "You're such a smart mouth."

I had no choice but to laugh at that. "Yeah, but you wouldn't have me any other way, baby."

"Whatever." He chuckled again, then closed the space between the both of us. My heart fluttered when our lips touched, and I _never_ got tired of his kisses. Michael's kisses were always sweet and hot and fierce. Now tell me, how could you get tired of THAT? I know I couldn't. No way in hell!

"You're going to be late," he sang to me in my ear.

"Oh! Sorry. Forgot."

He stroked my cheek and grinned. "Have fun at school today, okay? Make new friends, pay attention to the teacher, don't stop for _anyone_ on the street-"

"Okay, mom," I joked.

"Very funny. I'm serious though, Kzinga. You could get hurt out there. Just be careful for me."

"I will."

He took his arms and turned me around, then slapped my butt. "Go on! Get to steppin'. Don't want to be late for your first day o' school."

"Bye," I said, waving as I stepped out the door.

"Bye."

. . .

I was lucky to have just enough bus fare to get to Aviva, and I got there just in time for my first period to start. My first class was English. I became self conscious when I walked into the classroom. Thirty-three beady teenage eyes were all fixated on me. Ugh, this was going to suck so frigging much.

"Ah, you must be the new student. Would you mind telling your name to the class?" The teacher's smile looked fake.

"Kzinga." I didn't smile back at her.

"Oh, that's very beautiful."

"Thank you."

"Now, lets see..." She looked around the classroom. "You can sit right next to...ah, here we go. Miss Tatum, will you please stand up?"

Oh my GOD! You have got to be fucking kidding me.

"Tatum?"

"Hey, classmate," she said, winking and wiggling her fingers at me. Rich people, I swear.

"Oh! So I see you two already know each other," the teacher said cheerfully.

"Yes, we do," I said. _Unfortunately_.

"Tatum, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping Kzinga get accustomed to her new school."

"No, certainly not. I'll _totally_ do that." She smiled perfect teeth at the teacher.

I walked over to the seat next to Tatum and set my things down. Everyone else stared at me still. I'll have to kill Michael for this dumb idea later.

"Okay, class. We're starting our new unit on Shakespeare now, so turn to page 362 in your textbooks."

I watched all of the students, Tatum included, mess around with papers and writing utensils. I felt completely out of place. I wished I was back at home with Michael. But then again, he was probably not at home right now. Oh well.

. . .

First period ended surprisingly fast. So did my other three periods, then it was lunchtime. Everyone was rushing to get out the door while I was just barely putting everything away. I looked to the doorway to see Tatum standing there fixing her hair. Was she waiting for me? Hm, interesting. I finally put on my bag and walked over there.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Um, sure."

She laughed.

As I followed her to the cafeteria, she began to talk to me. This was weird.

"So how do you like Aviva so far?"

"It's...new. I haven't been to school lately due to...just some stuff I've been going through."

"I see."

It was silent for a while as I walked through strange hallways, caught sight with new people. She spoke again. "Listen, Kzinga. I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You know, that other night when I first saw you. I shouldn't have acted like that." She brought me closer to her, and spoke just above a whisper. "It's just that, when I saw you and Michael, I got really jealous. I don't like seeing him with other girls. It makes me uncomfortable."

Well, hell! If she thinks that all Michael and I did that night was _talk_, she is so far from the truth that its not even funny.

"Tatum, why are you talking so low?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Well, yeah, but no one will know that its Michael Jackson, right?"

She hushed me loudly, and pressed her index finger to my lips. "Jesus, you're loud. And yes, I know, but you still have to be careful. If people found out he and I were dating, all hell would break loose for me."

"Don't people know who you are, though? You _are_ very famous."

"I know, but...they don't know Michael and I are dating. The reason why they don't think its such a big deal or someone to come to school here is because a lot of there kids are the kids of famous actors and singers and producers and all that stuff."

No wonder I didn't fit in here. I wasn't the child of anyone well-known. I was just simply Kzinga, a middle-class, black teenage girl from Los Angeles, California. No one special.

"Oh," was all I said. "But why would they freak out if they found out?"

"Because then they'll all ask me to take them to his house and all this other bullcrap.

"I can see how that would be annoying, to both you _and_ him."

"Yes. Exactly."

Alright, alright. I admit, she wasn't _that_ bad. She kind of made me a little uneasy though, and it still doesn't take away from what I said earlier. She still didn't deserve Michael. We got to the cafeteria, and sat at an empty table. After a while of the both of us eating, I was the one to ask the questions, not her.

"So, how did you and Michael meet?"

"Well, when he was doing the Jackson's Variety Show-"

I snickered. "Oh yeah, that show."

"What's so funny?" she asked, completely confused.

"Nothing, its just, I LOVE that show. I used to watch it all the time when I was younger. Its hilarious."

She laughed. "Yeah, it is actually. You know what Mike said, though?"

"What?"

"He said he hated doing that show."

"You know, I think that there were some parts where you could kind of tell."

She nodded. "Sometimes his true feelings about that show showed through on screen."

"Michael's pretty good about hiding his emotions, but he must've hated the show so much that he just couldn't help it," I said, sipping on my soda.

"Yeah. He's really a good guy, though. But anyways, so one night I was backstage watching Michael perform "I'll Be There" in front of the crowd for the show to end. When it was finished, him and his brothers came backstage. Michael saw me there. From then on, we were really good friends. One night, I think it was last year, he told me that he was in love with me. I told him how I felt about him too, and then we kissed. Afterwards, I felt like spinning in circles." She sighed dreamily. In my mind, I threw up.

"Ever since then, we've been together, but he's been acting strange lately. Like he doesn't even want to be around me." Her face fell. "I think he might be cheating on me."

My heart jumped. If she ever found out that it was with me...

"Oh, I'm sorry Tatum."

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I'm getting suspicious."

"Don't jump to conclusions just yet, though. For all we know, he might have a surprise for you. You never know."

She shrugged, then went back to nibbling on a potato chip. "So, tell me. How did _you_ guys meet?"

Oh no! I couldn't tell her the truth! No one could know about my past. The only person who knew was Michael, but that's because he found me and took me to his house. Tatum wouldn't understand if I told her, and if I told her that _Mike_ took me in, she would never talk to me again. We were both headed in the right direction relating to our friendship _so_ far, right? So why screw it up? So I lied to her. What other choice did I have?

"Well, see, my friends and I were driving around town, 'cause we decided to go out and have some fun. But turns out that as soon as I got out the car, they all drive away without me, and I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere."

"Some friends," Tatum said.

"Yeah, I know, right? Anyways, then I saw Michael walk out Studio 84, and I was so shocked. So we said hi to each other and got to know each other a little better. We went for a walk, then we came back, then..." I couldn't say what happened beyond that. "That was it."

She nodded, now biting into an apple. Boy, did this girl eat a lot. It was a miracle she wasn't fat!

Just then, a light skinned black girl came our way. She looked like one of her parents were white, or at least mixed with something else. Her short hair just barely touched her shoulders, and she had bright brown eyes, a little bit lighter than mine were.

"Hey, Tater Tot!" she said.

"Hey, Kiddie," Tatum replied.

I looked at the girl and half-smiled at her. She seemed really friendly, and also looked similar to someone I knew. Tater Tot? Really? Wow, was _that _corny as hell. I couldn't wait to tell Michael when I got home.

"This is Quincy Jones's daughter, Kidada," Tatum said to me.

That was it! She was Quincy's daughter. She looked so much like him, too. And she was very beautiful. Her features were more prettier than Tatum's. Not to say she wasn't beautiful too, but Kidada was..._wow_. Her beauty stood out like a diamond in a pile of dust.

"Hi, nice to meet you," she said.

I smiled and waved at her.

"She's a little shy," Tatum said. "This is her first day at Aviva."

"Really? Oh, you'll love it here, trust me. The students have so much fun here. What's your name?"

"Kzinga."

"That's pretty."

"Thanks," I said and laughed. "I like your name too."

"So, what's going on?" she asked us both.

"Nothing, just talking about Michael."

"Oh?" Her face lit up.

"Wait a minute, wait just a second." They both stared at me. "So, Kidada, you know too? About Tatum and Mike, I mean."

"Yeah, just us two. And Tatum, of course."

"Oh, okay," I said, trying to keep the smirk off my face. God, if they only knew...

"You know, Tatum, I'm so jealous of you. Michael is _so _gorgeous! Cant we share him?" she asked, then giggled at Tatum's facial expression.

"Um, no? We _cannot_, thanks. He's mine, hun. Go get your_self_ a guy."

Kidada suck ed her teeth, then smiled. "Oh well. So much for that." She tapped my hand. "It was worth a try though, huh?"

I laughed. Okay, this day was turning out to be alright. I'd feared this morning that it would be the complete opposite. Maybe God had mercy on me this time. It was the first time that he would. And Tatum was an okay person...as long as she didn't find out about Michael and I. If that happens, I think she would turn into the devil himself.

"So, Kzinga, have _you_ met Michael?" Kidada asked.

_Yes, and now he's my whole life. He's everything to me._ This was what I had wanted to say, but didn't. How could I?

"Yeah. We met in front of a studio several days ago. I met your father too."

She chuckled. "Oh, you met dad, huh?"

"Yeah, Quincy's so cool! Didn't him and Mike meet on the set of 'The Wiz'?"

"Mm-hm. Yeah, Michael couldn't pronounce the Greek philosopher Socrates' name right. He kept saying, 'Soeh-cray-tees' instead of the way its actually pronounced. It was so funny. Tatum and I were there and saw the whole thing. My dad was like, 'Um...its Socrates', and Lord, Michael looked so embarrassed. You remember, Tater Tot?"

"I do remember." Tatum was trying hard not to laugh, but she couldn't help it. "Gosh, he turned so red it was ridiculous! But it was the cutest thing ever. You should have been there!"

I tried to think of where I was in the year 1978. That was last year...oh! I know. I was getting the shit beat out of me by Anthony. Just thinking of that made me shudder. I forced myself to delete the memory from my head. Anthony was gone, kaput, out of my life. There was no use in thinking about him now. He was in he past. Old news. But then I remembered the threat he threw at me before the police too him away. It was on that dreadful night when Michael was shot and damn near bled to death.

I almost lost him that night, but he made it, and because of me (don't worry, I'm past the phase of blaming myself now), he was out doing whatever. Probably working on his music video some more at his studio. I went back to engaging with my new friends. The first real friends that I'd had in a very long time.

"So, what's your next class?" Tatum asked.

"Not sure, actually."

"Well, what does your schedule say?"

I opened my backpack, and slipped out a little piece of paper that had all of my classes on it.

"It says math, with Ms. Leakley."

"Hey, I have that class next too!" Kidada said.

"Wow, awesome."

"I know, right?"

We both laughed, and Tatum just smiled and rolled her eyes. "You two, I swear, man."

"Aw, but you love us, Tater Tot," Kidada said.

"Of course I do, Kiddie. You already know that." She turned her face towards me. "We _have_ to think of a name for you, Kzinga."

"You can call me Ziggy. It's the nickname that M-...someone gave to me."

"Well then Ziggy it is." Tatum smiled and laughed lightly. I grinned.

"Yay! We're all a big happy family now. Group hug!" Kidada said. We all got together and hugged each other. Okay, I definitely change my mind. This day was turning out incredible, to my surprise. And Tatum was a very nice, fun, loving person. So was Kidada. This could work out pretty nicely. But in the back of my mind, I still knew that even at this very moment Tatum embraced me, I could lose her touching me forever if she found out my secret. If she knew about me and Michael, our now developing friendship will be damaged, and this time, it really _would _be my fault.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen- Not Quite What I Expected

All in all, I guess today wasn't so bad. And lunch with Tatum and Kidada was really fun, but I was ready to go home and see Michael. So you could probably guess how grateful I was when the final bell rang for school to end. I gathered all of my things, and headed downstairs, getting that refreshing feeling of when the first day of school is finally over. I walked out the front doors, a rush of wind swirling around me and making me shiver. The climate was beginning to get cooler. Winter was just around the corner, it seemed.

"Hey! Ziggy!"

It was Kidada. The lower parts of her velvet red bell-bottom jeans flapped back and forth as she ran towards me.

"Hey, Kiddie. What's up?"

"So, guess what? Tatum and I are going to the movie house later on tonight. Want to come with us? We can just swing by your house and pick you up, if you want."

As fun as that sounded, all I wanted to do tonight was spend some time with Michael. I hadn't seen him all day. And besides, I didn't live with my parents anymore. What would Tatum think if she saw me walking out of her "boyfriend's" house? Chances were she wouldn't take too kindly to that. As I have said before, and most likely will say many more times in the future: this was the price I that had to pay if I wanted to be with Michael Jackson. Better safe than sorry.

"Actually, I have lots of stuff to do tonight. Maybe another time. Sorry, Kidada."

"Well, alright. See you later!"

"Bye."

_She's such a sweet girl_, I thought to myself as Kidada walked away. I then reached into my pocket to see how much money I had left to take the bus back to Encino. Barely enough.

I walked to the bus stop and sat down on the bench, alone and cold. I wrapped my arms around myself to keep from losing all of my warmth. In the distance, I saw a balding man with raggedy clothes. He didn't wear any shoes, either. He was homeless, it looked like. He walked up to me and sat down next to me on the bench.

"Miss, I don't mean to be a burden to you, but do you have any spare change that I could have?"

"Of course I do. Hold on just a second."

I searched my pockets for change. I would have enough bus fare to get back, so I gave the man a couple of the quarters that I had.

"Thank you so much."

"No problem."

I saw the man walk away, and shook my head. Poor guy. There were just too many people in the world without food or a home to live in. It just wasn't right. Humans should share with one another. We're all part of the same species, aren't we? What the hell is wrong with us? Why can't we pull together and help those in need? Why couldn't we all be…like Michael?

The damn bus didn't end up coming until fifteen minutes later, but I was happy when it finally arrived. I got on, paid my fare, then sat down somewhere. It was pretty empty, only a couple of people on today. I enjoyed the rocking, bumpy motion of the bus as it rode. I was so glad that the day was over, but at least I knew that tomorrow would be better, now that I had friends. I was tired, but couldn't wait to get home and tell Michael how my day went. I could only imagine the look on his face when I told him about Tatum and Kidada.

I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes for a quick minute. It would be a while before I got to Encino, so why not rest for a bit? You know, as unsure as I was about starting school again back at when Mike and I were at the hospital, I was glad to know that Michael cared about me enough to make me have an education.

Even though I considered him to be my boyfriend, he also treated me like a parent that only wanted the best for me. He did the things that my real parents failed to do. Sure, they would give me what I wanted. What I needed?

Thank goodness Michael was in my life, or it would be a wreck. I'd be living on the streets, uneducated, begging for money from strange people to buy just enough food so that I wouldn't starve to death. Michael just wasn't your typical person, I guess. You can look into his eyes and see that, clear as glass. When most people would see a small orphan and take them to social services, Michael would be that _one_...he would be that one to take the child himself and _raise_ them himself, regardless of that child's past.

He was one of the most beautiful people in the world. Too bad not many people could see that, but I could. I could look way past his good looks, his money, his fame, his clothes, the house he lives in, and only be left with his heart. And in the end, that's what I'd keep coming back to, if nothing else.

I closed my eyes and let my mind swim in imagination.

_Once upon a time, there was a girl who looked just like me. She had raggedy, dirty clothes, and her hair covered most of her face, blocking her full vision. Through her eyes, she could only see darkness. No light visible as far as she could see. The world was full of dark-spirited people, and demons flew around her, waiting for her to die, so that they could steal her soul away and gain more power. A demon walked up to her, asking her how she wanted to be killed. She placed her face in her knees and prayed to die soon. The demon's gray fingers touched her cheek, its edge scratching her, making her bleed. The demon cackled loudly at her discomfort and pain. But then...she saw something. A light. A tiny glint of white light in the distance that grew larger as it neared. The demons around her gave out a blood-curdling scream and flew away._

_The girl's dirt-laden face looked up at what stood before her. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. It was a boy. He had brown-caramel skin, and big brown eyes that burned into her corneas when she looked into them because they were so lovely and ethereal. His hair was short and fuzzy. White wings sprouted from his back and flapped majestically behind him, and he wore white pants. His upper chest was bare, and so were his feet._

_The boy saw the girl on the ground and picked her up, carrying her away to safety. As he held her, she saw how no more darkness surrounded her. As she looked down, she saw green grass and flowers wherever the boys feet stepped. He was good. She _knew_ that he was good._

This was how I saw Michael. The angel of all angels. The most amazing of them all. The man of my dreams. He was the one, and I knew for certain that I wouldn't end up in the darkness ever again.

I looked out of the window. The sun was starting to set. I then looked at my watch, which read 5:16. As I turned my eyes back to the window, I could tell that I was close. I was in Encino, that's for sure. And it said as much by how big the houses were here.

"Next stop, Haywood Boulevard."

Michael lived here. It was time for me to get off. I pulled the tiny white line that was connected to the window, and it made a loud buzzing noise.

I stood up, pulled my backpack closer to my body by the straps, and got off.

"Have a good night, Miss," the conductor said to me.

"You too."

After the bus left, I looked around to see which way Michael's house was. After I realized what direction I was supposed to go, I crossed the street and turned the corner and began walking there.

As I walked, there were a group of older boys who began to whistle and howl at me. They were also telling me to go over there and talk to them. I'd had so many nightmares of men raping me when I was alone on the street that I began to believe it would come true. That's exactly what happened.

"Come on, baby. Let's get it on!" one of them yelled at me.

My muscles tensed as they approached me. One of them walked up to me and grabbed at my arm. I tried to make them let go, but they were too strong.

"Aw, don't be like that. You know you want me."

"Please, I just want to get home. Please leave me alone," I pleaded. They weren't listening to me.

I was finally able to let go, and once I did, I ran for my life. They followed after me. They were pretty fast.

As I kept running, I saw that I was getting close to Michael's house. I ran as fast as I could to the gate. One of the other boys got hold of me again.

"You ain't going nowhere tonight. You're coming with us."

"No! Leave me alone! GO AWAY!" I kept my hands locked on the handles of the gate.

"Shut up, bitch," he said and hit me across the face. He was beginning to drag me away. I continuously screamed Michael's name, while at the same time did my best to not let go of the gate.

. . .

Firing one of my producers was definitely not fun. Today was pretty hard.  
I reached over for the bottle of wine that I was almost finishing and poured myself another glass when I heard it. I heard my name called.  
"MICHAEL! MICHAEL! HELP ME!"  
There was someone in trouble, and by the sounds of it, they knew me. A female. Her voice sounded familiar. I got up from the couch, set my glass down and immediately left the house. In the distance, I saw someone and knew exactly who it was.

Kzinga was being taken away by these men that I'd never seen before. Oh, _hell_ no! That wasn't going to happen. I already knew what they wanted from her, and let me tell you, as long as I'm with her, no one's gonna get away with shit. Not as long as I'm around. It just wasn't happening. I wasn't a strong person physically, but when someone messed with the people I loved, I wasn't Michael Jackson anymore. I was hell itself.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen- "No One Else"

The same boy slapped me in the face again and told me to shut up. Why was I always the one to have the abuse? Damn...

"Mich-...ow!" He began to pull at my hair, and it hurt terribly. His face came close to my left ear for him to whisper something.

"Once were done with you, you wont want Michael back...whoever he is."

"Ha! Wouldn't you love to know? Oh, and how the fuck do you know that? I love Michael, and you don't even KNOW him, so just shut the hell up, will you? Instead of fucking around with me, why don't you just kill me? Didn't your mom ever tell you that you just _eat_ your food and not toy around with it?"

The boy backed away from me while two others held my arms and were quickly binding me. The rest of them just stood off to the side to cheer them on. Cowards...

"Take her away," the boy who whispered in my ear said.

That's when I heard his lovely voice from afar.

"Hey! Assholes! That's my girl you're messin' with."

Hope rose inside of me. Michael heard me call his name. The angel heard my prayer. I looked in front of me to see him coming to the gate, just as I was about to give up and pull away.

"Michael! It's you."

"Well, of course its me. Who else would it be?" he said and smiled his beautiful teeth at me. My heart once again melted for the countless-ith time when he did.

"Wait a fucking minute...your boyfriend is _Michael Jackson_?" said one of the other boys, his voice cracking because he was so scared of what he just found out.

"Damn right it is." Michael undid the gate, walked out and took a step forward. He raised his eyebrows at the boys. "So I would advise that you please unbind my girlfriend and be on your way. I'm not in a very good mood right now, so please, for your benefit, do _not_ test me." Michael spoke all of that through clenched teeth. I could tell that he was getting pretty pissed off. And yet, he wore the most sickening smile on his face. One that I'd never seen before, and then again, I wasn't one of Michael's enemies, so I guess I wouldn't see it very often, unless he was completely ticked off like he is now.

That man could be the greatest pleasure you've ever had, but at the same time, he can scare the HELL out of you if you made him. No, he wasn't exactly what you would call "two-faced", but he was most definitely someone different when he wasn't himself.

Michael wasn't himself when he was angry. He was someone that I wasn't familiar with at all. At heart, he was a cheerful and happy guy, and so that's why I try everyday to make him happy, because he deserves it...and because he scares the living shit out of me when he's pissed.

The guys that kidnapped me began to slowly untie me from the ropes.

"Faster, damn it!" Michael's voice was like the devil, and I had to admit that it was very sexy. Suddenly all I wanted at that moment was to have him in the bed seducing me. What was it with him that made me so...no. This was not the time for sexual thoughts. Not yet, that is.

It wasn't my fault, though. I missed out last night when Michael pushed me away and treated me like a father saying "You have to get your rest, and blah de da de da."

The boys hurried untying me, then quickly backed away.

"Now leave," Michael said. "And if I catch you do-do heads over here again, I'm calling the cops on your asses."

Did he just say do-do heads? What the...

"Yes, Mr. Jackson," the boys said in unison. Then they all walked away.

I was so proud of my baby. He really was brave. I was glad that I was the one he wanted to protect.

"Thank you," I whispered.

He shrugged, then smiled at me. "What was I supposed to do? Act like I didn't know you and let those guys do whatever they wanted with you?" He shook his head. "No one's messing around with you but me."

"I like it when you mess around with me, Mike," I said, pulling his shirt towards my chest.

"And I _love_ it when you talk like that to me." He wrapped his arms around my waist and brought me closer to him.

I frowned. "Michael, as much as I'm enjoying this, I don't think it would be the best idea to be seen like this outside where everyone can see."

"Who cares, though?"

"I'm sure Tatum would."

Michael winced at that. "True, very true."

He took my hand and we walked into the house to immerse ourselves into each other such as the night we first met...

. . .

"Michael, honey, I'm tired."

"Aw, come on! I'm not finished yet."

"Dude. You've been sucking on the same tit for an hour."

He sighed. "Fine. Time for the fun stuff, then."

"Wait a sec...I thought we were done having sex for one night. This was longer than it was before, you know."

"Um...and you think I care...how, exactly?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Okay, what now then?"

"Here, get up from the bed and I'll show you."

He placed his hand on my back and led me to a section of the wall. What I saw confused me beyond anything else.

There were a pair of handcuffs nailed inside of the wall. On the side of it was a single key. Just then, I realized I had seen one of these things before and what purpose it was for.

"Michael Joseph Jackson...what in the HELL is your problem?"

All I got back as a reply was him laughing at me and him saying "See? I knew you would like it."

"You actually expect me to put my hands in there?"

"Yes, ma'am," he quipped sarcastically.

I groaned loudly. "Fine, have it your way."

I placed my hands inside of the cuffs and shut them tight. Michael grabbed the key from the side and locked both of them, then threw the key on the bed

As scared as I was, I wanted him to spank me hard. I decided to play nicely.

"Oh, Mikey?" I sang to him.

"Yes, my lovely?"

"Well, you see...I've been very bad today. I need a punishment. A harsh one." I winked at him, and he chuckled.

"Are you sure? I hit pretty hard."

"Yes."

He shrugged. "Alright, so be it." He gestured for me to turn around, and I did.

The first slap on my bare butt cheek stung like fire. I had no idea he hit that hard, but I endured the pain. In fact, I liked it. A lot.

It was about fifteen slaps before I was ready to give in.

"Michael! _Dios mio_...no more torture! _Please_."

"Oh? I see someone's had enough," he said with a smirk on his face.

"Ya think?" I retorted.

He began laughing at me. "Alright, alright, that's enough for one night."

Michael took the key and unlocked the cuffs from my wrists.

We put our clothes back on and headed downstairs for dinner.

As I was in the kitchen cooking spaghetti, he and I talked about nothing in particular. That is until I noticed the almost completely drained bottle of wine sitting in the living room.

"Michael?"

He turned his head to me from eying the wall. "What?"

"Why's there a wine bottle over there?" I pointed to the other room.

He sighed. "I needed something to calm me down at the moment."

"Why? Did something happen today at the studio?"

He rolled his eyes and turned his head. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Was it that bad?"

"No, but...today was just stressful, that's all."

"Oh...I'm sorry, baby cakes."

He shrugged, then smiled at me. "Its no big deal."

"I know what'll cheer you up."

"Ooh, what?" he asked eagerly.

"This big plate of spaghetti here." I held up his plate for him to see.

"Yay!" He clapped and bounced in his chair like a child.

. . .

The next morning was Saturday, but I decided to wake up early. I had a song that I'd been dying to play since I moved into Michael's house and saw the big grand piano sitting in the other room.

I walked in, the light from outside illuminating the room. Was in here, alone, with nothing but a piano before me.

I slowly sat myself down, then began to play:

_Swift as a wind song,_

_You sing the music of an honest bird_

_I waited for some contradiction_

_The truth was ringing in your every word_

_And every moment since then_

_The one thing I can tell, _

_Is that I belong with you_

_And no one else_

The tears began to stream down my face. Every word in this song expressed how I felt about Michael.

_Lay down those heavy burdens_

_On the banks of this river deep_

_Know that every piece of your past_

_Is always someplace safe with me_

_And there's no room for judgment_

_I want you as yourself_

'_Cause I belong with you_

_And no one else..._

When I was finished, I blew out a final breath, but then I noticed someone behind me.

I turned around to see Michael standing there in the doorway watching me.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen- Surprise! Or Not...

"Mike! I...I'm sorry if I woke you, I was just-"

"It's alright," he said and began walking over to me, still in his red Chinese silk pajamas. I guessed he didn't change his clothes until much later when it was the weekends because he didn't have to go to work.

"You have a beautiful voice. I had _no _idea you could sing like that!"

I could feel the blood in my face heat up when he said that. "It's not that good."

He laughed. "Yeah, it really is. I know you're just saying that just to be modest, but..." He sat next to me in front of the piano.

"It'll never be as good as yours. You sing way better than me."

"I would say that you sing just as good as me."

"Really?" My eyes widened.

"_Yeah_. Did you write that song by yourself?"

I nodded. "I wrote it for you, Michael."

He cocked his head slightly to one side.

"It was just something that I was thinking about in my head, and I just decided to turn it into a song."

"Why'd you do that?" he asked.

I frowned. "Do what?"

"Write this for me."

I laughed. "Isn't it obvious, silly?"

He shrugged. I laughed again. "Its because I love you, Mike."

He smiled at that, then placed his head on my shoulder. "I love you too. So much." He took his hand and locked it with mine.

I sighed. "You know, sometimes I think about how much stuff we've been through together. We've only known each other for a couple of weeks, but...it seems like so much longer than that. Like years!"

He nodded. "Yeah, it does feel like that. But that's okay. I've longed to be this close to someone for as long as I can remember. Being with you shows me what true friendship is like. And true love."

I lifted his head from my shoulder and made him look into my eyes. "What do you mean true friendship?"

He looked away from me, sadness in his eyes. "Well...when I was little, I _never _had any friends. The only friends I had were my brothers, and as much as I love them, they were still just my brothers. There were always kids who would come over and ask to play with me. 'Mr. Jackson, can we play with Michael? Pleaassee?'" he said, mimicking the kids. I giggled when he did that. He did too, but then his face became sad again.

"Of course, like I knew he would, Joseph would always say no and tell them how I was busy rehearsing. My heart would always be broken when that happened." He paused for just a second, then continued on.

"I used to go to my room and cry all the time, and sometimes wishing that I wasn't myself. That I was someone else. I was real lonely as a kid. My whole childhood was The Jackson Five. And as much as I loved performing...man...God _knows_ how much I love to go on stage and sing, but I would always go home and wish that I could just do something that regular kids did."

I placed my hand on his back and started to rub it, comforting him. I then kissed his cheek. "Michael?"

He turned his face to me, tears in his eyes. One fell down his cheek, and eventually more tears spilled over. That absolutely broke my heart.

"Don't cry, sweetie. It's alright now. Those days are over. As long as you're around me, you can act as childish as you like. I'll even get a baby carriage and we can ride around town in it," I said laughing.

Through his tears, Michael gave me the funniest look ever. "You're kidding right? Do you know what people will say when they see me in a thing like that?"

He and I laughed. He was starting to feel better, I could see. Finally, after we were done laughing, I wiped final tears away from his face.

"Hey," I whispered to him.

"What?"

"Come here." I opened my arms to him. He obliged, and we hugged each other. He put his head on my shoulder again, and I rubbed my fingers through his soft, black curly hair.

"Everything's okay now," I reassured him. "I'm here."

"I know." He sat up and looked at me again.

"Michael? Can I ask you something?"

"No."

"W-why?"

He broke into laughter. "I'm just kidding. What is it?"

"Do you have a best friend?"

"I do," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm looking at her."

I gasped. "_I'm_ your best friend?" I asked, completely astonished.

"You and Quincy."

"Thank you, Michael. That's...I don't even know what to say to that."

"I cant live without you."

"I don't think that I could do the same."

He leaned over and kissed my lips. Our kiss became stronger and more fierce. By the time we were done, my mouth hurt, and we were both breathing hard.

I suddenly heard my stomach grumble noisily.

"Time for breakfast," Michael said.

. . .

"Janet, please? Come on, we haven't hung out in forever. You will? Yes! Okay...yeah, I know. You know how mom and dad get. Just...well, yeah, I know that too. Just try your best, alright? No, I'm not leaving the house today. Unless when you come over you want to go out somewhere, I don't know." He laughed. "Yes, you'll get to meet her, she's here. Okay. I love you too. Bye."

Michael hung up the phone and turned back around to me. "Janet wasn't sure if she was going to come over or not because of Mother and Joseph. However, she did say that even though she's busy, she would stop by and visit."

My heart jumped. Michael must have noticed the tension on my face, because he asked me what was wrong.

"I'm okay, I just..."

"Just what?"

"Well, I don't know if your mom and Janet will like me all that much."

"Why?" he asked and chuckled.

"I don't know. Maybe its just me."

"If that's what you think, then you're probably right. It is just you."

I rolled my eyes and looked away. "You know, you're seriously not helping."

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly. He turned my face to look at his. "Look, you have nothing to be afraid of. I know that meeting new people probably isn't the easiest thing for you, but trust me, Janet is _awesome_. She'll like you, and so will Mother. I promise. And once you get to meet the rest of my family, which will hopefully be soon, then they'll all like you too."

"Wait...you mom is coming too?"

"Well, Janet's only thirteen. She cant drive yet."

"What about Joseph?"

He took his hand from off of my face.

"I don't know about him. Joseph never told me that he was proud of me. Even going off on my own like this and away from the other Jacksons and doing my own thing, he hasn't said anything."

I sighed. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but Joseph really does love you, Michael."

He sucked his teeth and folded his arms. "Oh yeah, he _loves_ me. He loves me so much that he calls me ugly, beats on me and even criticizes anything that I try to do differently. Kzinga...you just cant understand. You're still too young."

"Michael, I'm sixteen," I said firmly, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded slowly. "I know that, but you're still just a baby. You don't know the deep roots of things just yet. At your age, you want everything to be perfect. When you get older you'll see that some thing just cant be fixed...like the relationship between me and my father."

"If you say I'm so insignificant to these things, then _teach_ me. You came into my life at a time when I knew nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. I know more now because of you. Because you became my teacher. I've learned a lot already from you. You tell me how I don't understand certain things. Make me understand! Show me how."

Michael looked deeply into my eyes for a very long time. We said nothing, just looked at each other. Between the silence, I was hoping that somehow what I had said made Michael think. Yes, it was true I was still young. But if I don't know certain things, then I wanted him to take the time to show me what I was missing out on. I hated feeling like an ignorant person who didn't know anything.

Michael sighed. "Alright, fair enough."

"Look. Whenever we see the rest of your family, will you promise me that you'll at least try to get along with Joseph? For me?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll _try_. But that doesn't mean it'll work."

"I'm not saying it will. But just try not to get in any arguments if you can."

"What if he starts it?"

"Then by all means do what you think is right."

We suddenly heard the doorbell ring. Janet and Michael's mom were here. Wonderful.

"I'll be back. Let me go and let my them in," Michael said.

I sighed, then nodded sadly.

He placed his hand on my cheek. "Hey, it'll be alright." He brought my face closer to his, then kissed my forehead.

I watched him walk over to the door to let Janet into the house.

"JANET!"

"MICHAEL!"

I saw the two siblings embrace each other. You could tell that they really loved each other, and that they were the closest of the other siblings.

"I missed you so much, big brother."

"Aw, I missed you too girl. How you been?"

"I've been doing pretty good. Busy, though."

Michael huffed. "Same here. Its tiring too, man. We're supposed to be shooting for "Rock With You" tomorrow, and I'm just not up for it."

"Why don't you just tell them you-" Janet stopped talking when she saw me standing there. I guess she didn't notice me right at first.

"Oh, but Mike, I see you _have_ been having some fun," she said looking at me and smiling. "Who's this?"

"Janet, this is Kzinga. Kzinga, this is my little sister Janet."

"Nice to meet you finally, Janet," I said shaking her hand.

"You too."

"Michael! Hi sweetie," said a different female voice. Just then, a woman with short black hair appeared at the doorway. It was Katherine.

"Hi Mother," Michael said walking up to her and kissing her on the cheek. "I'm so happy to see you."

"I'm happy to see you too, baby. Lord! What did you do to this poor house?" she said, observing all of the crap on the floor.

"Um...well, you see, I haven't exactly been cleaning the way I was supposed to, and so...uh..." He stopped talking and chuckled nervously when Katherine gave him a look.

"Michael Joseph Jackson, you better clean up all of this TODAY. Do you hear me, young man?"

I couldn't hide my laughter.

"Mother!" Michael whispered. "Not in front of my girlfriend."

"Oh! Where is she?"

"Come inside and you'll see her," he said.

When Katherine met eyes with me, she gave me a kind smile. "Well, hello Ms...?"

"Kzinga," I said.

What a pretty name!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Jackson."

. . .

Later on in the day, Katherine and Janet left, and as she ordered Michael to do, he got to work with picking up all of the things from off of the floor. I helped him, of course.

"You see? That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked me.

I sighed. "I suppose not."

He laughed.

Suddenly, I became dizzy and dropped the garbage bag that I was holding.

"Ziggy, what's wrong?" Michael asked me. "You okay?"

"I...I don't know."

Just then, I had the urge to vomit. "I have to go," I said.

"Go where?" he asked, now panicking.

"BATHROOM!"

I ran past him and to the bathroom located on the second floor. I ran as fast as I could to the toilet, then shut the door in Michael's face.

. . .

I sat on the cold floor weeping and sweating. I knew what was going on with me, but I was too afraid to tell Michael. He might not want me anymore if he found out I was pregnant.

We forgot to use protection the last time we had sex. Great. Sixteen and a mother. At least it was Michael's kid and not Anthony's, then I really would be screwed.

I heard knocking just outside of the bathroom door.

"Kzinga, baby, what's going on? Are you alright in there?"

I cried harder. He was going to hate me forever after I told him, but I knew I had to. It would be impossible to keep it a secret from him if he saw that my stomach was getting abnormally larger every month.

I finally rose from the floor and opened the door. Michael stood there looking completely confused.

"What's wrong? Did I do something?" he asked me.

I shook my head slowly and looked down. "Michael...I'm pregnant," I said, breaking into tears.

He backed away from me. "What did you just say?"

"I...I think I might be pregnant...with your child."

"No! That's impossible. We used protection every time-" He cut himself off. "_Shit_."

"What?" I asked.

"I forgot to cover up the last time we did it."

"No," I said.

"Yeah."

I suddenly became angry. "So this is all your fault."

"Kzinga, wait-"

"No! It's not like you wanted me anyway. You just wanted to use me, Michael. You don't really love me."

"None of what you say is true. You're just blinded by anger. You don't really mean what you say."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Because I KNOW you!"

"No you don't. You never did."

"Kzinga! Damn it, will you just stop and listen to me for a fucking second?"

I froze in my tracks. All of this was beginning to turn into more of a nightmare than a dream. I sighed. "What Michael?"

"It's not the end of the world," he said.

"But how will I be able to go to school? What will Tatum think when she sees me with a huge stomach? What will everyone else think?"

"Who _cares_ what they think?"

"Michael, you tell me how I'm just a child and I don't understand some things, but it seems that you don't understand that much either. You don't get it because you're a male, and you're not the one who has to carry the baby and go through childbirth."

"I get what you're saying, but you cant let this stop you from doing what you have to do in your life."

I began to sob. This was so unfair. Why did it have to be me?

Michael brought his arms around me and held me, letting me cry into his chest.

"Do you know why its not the end, sweetie?" he asked, whispering into my ear.

I sniffled. "No, why?"

He pushed me away from him and grabbed something from his pocket. A gleaming diamond ring winked at me as he held it in his hand. This was dream all over again. I couldn't believe what he had in his hand.

Michael ever so gracefully knelt down on one knee in front of me. I put my hands to my mouth, in utter shock.

His eyes were sincere and serious at the same time as he spoke to me. "Kzinga Leah Caroline Goldman, will you do me the wonderful honor of becoming my wife?"

"Mike..." Tears spilled over my face again. "You're out of your mind," I said laughing.

"No, I'm not," he said getting up from the floor. "I know exactly what I'm doing. Marry me, Kzinga. Then we can raise our child and be together forever."

"You want...me to marry you?"

"Yes! I know you've thought about it. And I KNOW you want to say yes, so just do it. I already know your answer, but I need to hear it from you."

"My heart says yes..."

"Then _say_ it as well."

We looked into each other's eyes for a long while.

"Well? Say something," he said.

"YES, MICHAEL! I will marry you. Nothing in this world will make me happier than for you to be my husband."

He lifted me from the ground and spun me around, then kissed me passionately.

The thought was still pulsing in my head:

_Michael's my fiancee now._


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen- No Longer a Secret

Well, it seemed like things were attempting to go back to normal, but every now and then, I would put my hand to my stomach, and my heart would stop. Its been a few weeks and Tatum nor Kidada have suspected anything out of the ordinary with me, but I knew I couldn't hide this secret forever. The secret that was slowly getting bigger as time flew.

I couldn't exactly wait to tell her after the fact, because I knew that as soon as she saw my child, she would see the same eyes that Michael has, and she would know. It'd be better to tell her before all of that happened. Thankfully, I had a while before that happened.

The baby was growing. I could tell. It hasn't moved yet, but I knew that it was there. It was weird thinking about how I had always wished I could have Michael's baby and how it would now actually happen. Not to mention the fact that I was engaged to him as well.

I turned my right hand to see the glimmering diamond ring that Michael had given to me. Things were starting to get better, step by step, and once again it began to feel like a dream, not a nightmare. It never really was, but it was beginning to feel like it the night I found out that I was pregnant. My only concern was how I would explain this to everyone, including...my parents.

No, there was no way in hell that I wanted to face them, but you know what? Sometimes you have to face your fears, even if you really don't want to. That's exactly what I had to do. I needed to go to my parents house and explain everything to them. But you know, if they get mad, its not my fault. They're the ones who kicked me out of the fucking house! If there's anyone who should be pissed, its me.

I needed to tell them soon, especially before I get married to Mike.

"Ziggy?" Michael called from across the room.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?"

Uh-oh. "Yeah, sure. What's the matter?"

He smiled. "Nothin' baby, I just need to talk you."

"Okay." I followed him to the couch in the living room, and we both plopped down.

Michael sighed and motioned for me to lie down on his lap. I did, and when we were both comfortable, he began to speak.

"So, listen. I know that we're getting married, and we're also having our first child together. I don't have a problem with any of that and I know you don't but, other people might think differently."

I looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"People like Tatum and others. And what about your mom and dad? Did you forget about them?"

I groaned. "Can we not talk about them right now?"

Michael sighed again. "Kzinga, look, I know dealing with your parents isn't fun, but you have to tell them! What if they find out where you are and who you're with?"

"Mike, if they have a problem with you, then its on them. You have nothing to do with-"

"I know that. All I'm saying is I don't know how they're going to react when they see that you're here with me. Not to mention you're going to be my wife not long from now, AND you're pregnant with _my child_."

He had a point. "Yeah, fine," I said exasperated.

"So I was thinking about having a small get-together here at my house, and maybe we could make an announcement or something."

"Michael, are you loco?"

"What? _I_ thought it was a good idea-"

"Because...okay look. Do you intend on inviting _everyone_?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You do understand that that includes Tatum, right? And technically you're STILL DATING HER."

Michael looked away. "I completely forgot about that...aw crap, I forgot!"

"Exactly."

Michael lifted me from his lap and made me look at him. "I know what I have to do. I remember how before you were telling me that I need to tell her. Now is the time."

I laughed. "You think?"

"I'll do it soon, I promise."

I sighed, then sat back on the couch, looking away from him and out the window. Michael noticed.

"What?" he asked.

"No not you...me actually."

"What do you mean you?"

"Mike...I love you. You know that. But somehow, I'm starting to feel guilty."

"What? Why?"

"Well, because I'm dating you even though you're dating someone else. It doesn't feel right. And Tatum and I are friends now, so it-"

"Wait, whoa whoa...hold on a minute. You and her are _friends_ now? I know I didn't just hear that."

I frowned. "I guess I forgot to tell you, huh? Well, see, since I've been going to Aviva, we've actually gotten to be really good friends."

Michael made a "hm" sound, then sat back on the couch.

"On my first day there, I found out that she was in my first period class. Of course I was kind of scared because of what happened between me and her the night you and I met, but as we were walking down to eat lunch she told me that she was sorry about that. She said she was just jealous of the fact that you were talking to some other girl besides her. When we sat at lunch together, she turned out to be really nice."

"Really? Because to me she's just bitchy and demanding."

"Well, I guess its because you're her boyfriend. Or...so she thinks."

Michael sighed, then cleared his throat. "Well, I guess its not bad if you're friends with her or anything, but then it makes it harder to tell her. I don't want you to lie to her because she's now your friend but...oh I just don't know. Thinking about how Tatum's going to react is making me just as worried as you now."

"All I'm saying is it just doesn't seem right doing this behind her back like this. I feel like a bad person." I sighed softly.

"Sweetie, look at me."

I turned around reluctantly to be faced with Michael's sweet brown eyes.

"I know you cant really understand...well maybe you do with Anthony and all, but...okay look, what I'm trying to say is that Tatum is really nice, well when she wants to be. I know that now you guys are friends at school, and I know you don't want to hurt her, but I don't see any other way to do it. She's just going to have to be hurt."

"Michael Joseph Jackson!" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm sorry! I don't want to do it like this either, but that's how it has to be. I don't see any other way, Kzinga. No it wont be easy telling her, but we MUST."

I groaned, then put my hands to my face in distress. "God, why is it always me?"

"Everything will be fine in due time."

"I know but..." I rolled my eyes.

"But what?" he asked me quietly.

"I don't know, I just think maybe you should have dealt with her first and maybe after the fact we could've gotten ourselves into all of this."

"I know it sounds bad, but this is what we have to do. If you really think about it, we didn't have much of a choice. I remember how you explained to me about your parents on the night that we met."

I sighed. "That day was hell."

"Exactly. I've told you this before, but I wasn't going to just let you live on the streets to fend for yourself. I don't think anyone should be living on the streets, but especially not a sixteen year old girl. That's why I took you home with me."

I giggled. "Isn't it weird how the same night we met we also...well, you know."

Michael laughed. "Yeah, I don't think we controlled ourselves very well that night. I would usually wait a while to do something like that, but for some reason, as soon as we got to my room...something just came over me, and all I wanted to do was jump on top of you and rip all your clothes off. You have that kind of effect, you know."

"You do too. To be honest, I was thinking about it as soon as we got through the door."

We both laughed, then calmed down after a while. I got up from the couch and played with my hair.

"What's wrong now?" Michael asked me.

I sighed, then continued my gaze out the window like before.

"Look, I promise you that we'll sort this out, okay? I'll break up with Tatum, we'll tell everyone everything later, we'll get married, I'll put you on maternity leave from school when your belly gets bigger and hire a tutor for as long as you're here at home, and later on in the following months to come, we'll have a beautiful child who we'll both love and cherish forever, and it'll be a happily ever after."

I laughed at Michael's sense of humor. "Okay I get your point. I need to stop freaking out. Fine, you win."

"Duh! I always win, stupid," he said to me.

I slapped him on the arm. He took his hand and rubbed it. "Ouch."

I chuckled.

. . .

The next day was Monday, meaning that unfortunately I had to go to school again. It was my second week at Aviva High, and I was beginning to fit in slowly, but not yet. Part of the reason why I didn't want to go. I wouldn't be comfortable with being there until maybe a couple more weeks from now.

"I'll see you later, Mike. Have fun at the studio," I said just as I was ready to head out the door to catch the bus.

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too. Bye."

I kissed Michael swiftly, then made my way to school.

. . .

I was quiet at lunchtime. Instead of including myself in the conversation, I just listened to Kidada brag about her new boyfriend, Joey Ramone. Yes, the actual Joey Ramone from the band the Ramones.

I know what you're thinking: How in the hell is that possible considering that Joey was from New York and we were all the way here in California? Well, unfortunately, I don't have an answer for that. The best thing I can say is that things happen in very peculiar ways, like me meeting Michael for example. That wasn't exactly what you would call a normal night.

"So anyways, I was telling him about how we couldn't go to my house and do anything because my parents were there, so we decided it would just be best if we went out for some lunch..."

Kidada stopped talking and eyed me. "What's wrong, Ziggy?"

I sighed. "Oh nothing...I'm just kind of tired, that's all. I didn't have that much sleep last night, and, well, this is the result of it, I guess."

"You sure that's all that's bugging you?" Tatum asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I lied.

Tatum reached over and touched my hand. "Well, you know you can talk to me if you have a problem, right?"

_That's what you think_. "Yes, I know."

Just then, I felt that same queasiness again. Morning sickness. Figures...

"Uh, guys? I have to get going. Like, NOW." I lifted myself from the chair.

"What's the matter? Everything okay?" Kidada asked.

"Uh, yeah, I just, um...I have to go."

I turned the other way and made a run for it to the nearest bathroom. Why was this happening now? Why not later? Jeez, it seems like God really doesn't favor me right now.

When I got to the bathroom, I headed for the first stall my eyes caught on, then puked my guts up.

This happened to me for about ten or fifteen minutes. A little later, I turned my head and looked down. There were a pair of feet standing in front of my stall.

"Whoever you, are, go away!"

"It's me, Kidada. Are you alright? Want me to take you to the nurse?"

"No, I'm okay. Just go."

I heard her huff. "Come on, girl. I'm just tryin' to help you. Don't treat me like an enemy."

I sighed softly, then flushed the toilet. Afterwards, I opened the stall. She stood there with worry all over her face.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm acting like a bitch. I know you're just here to help, and I shouldn't act this way with people who care about me."

"It's alright, if I were just done throwing up my guts too, I think I'd act the same. No hard feelings."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"Man, you look bad. Here, let me take you to the nurse-"

"No...no, I'll be alright. Can we just stay here and...talk?"

"Kzinga, I'm actually supposed to be in class right now."

I gasped. "Lunch is over already?"

"Yeah, it finished like five minutes ago. I should be in class too, but I wanted to check on you to see if you were okay."

"Go on to class then. Don't waste your class time with me. I'm not important."

"Yes you are. That's why I'm staying right here." Kidada smiled, then put her arm around my shoulder.

I took her hand and led her to a corner in the bathroom. I knew no one would come in here while we were talking because everyone was in class.

When we were settled, I took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"What's the matter? You feel better?"

"Not that much, but...look, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

I sighed. "Kiddie, you're going to FREAK if I tell you this."

"Just tell me what it is."

"That's just the thing: I don't know how."

"Tell me nice and slow. Just take a deep breath and tell me calmly."

I could feel tears coming to my eyes. "Kidada...I..."

"You what?"

I looked away from her. "I'm pregnant." I turned my face to see hers. It went entirely pale.

"How do you know? How did this even happen?"

I let out a sob. "God, its such a long story."

She took my hand. "I have time. I wont judge you, I promise. So...who's the father?"

I groaned. "Both you and Tatum are going to kill me."

She frowned. "Its not Joey, is it?"

I managed a small chuckle. "Kidada, I haven't even met Joey Ramone. He's your guy."

She blew out a breath of relief. "Well then why did you say both me and Tatum-"

"Well, you might not kill me, but I know Tatum will."

Her eyes widened gradually and she shook her head slowly. Her mouth dropped open. "You're kidding me...you...you CANNOT be talking about Michael! No way in hell is he..."

I nodded before she could finish her sentence, tears coming down my face. "That's exactly who it is."

Kidada took her hands and put them against her face. "Okay, okay. Alright look...we...we cant panic, okay? We'll figure this out, don't worry-"

"Well, Kiddie, I'm not exactly worried about having Michael's child, I just-"

"What do you mean you're not worried? MICHAEL IS TATUM'S BOYFRIEND! She's going to kill both you AND him. You have a lot to be worried about."

"Thanks, now I'm really ready to tell her," I said sarcastically.

"Alright, I'm sorry girl. I didn't mean to make you more nervous...I just want you to realize that this isn't exactly the most easiest thing to tell Tatum."

"Yeah, you're right. I know. And you know what makes it worse? The fact that when we first met, she told me about how Michael was 'acting funny' around her. She suspected that he was cheating on her with somebody, but she didn't know it was me. And now..." I groaned. "Kidada, I fucked up bad."

"Damn right you did. But you know what? Shit happens. There's nothing you can do about it now. The best you can do is just tell her the truth, and hope that she doesn't butcher you for stealing her boyfriend and having HIS baby inside of you."

I looked away to hide the true pain that I was feeling. I wasn't scared about being pregnant (which I admit is a little weird for someone my age). I was scared of what Tatum would do to me.

I remembered Michael's exact words: _Thinking about how Tatum's going to react is making me just as worried as you_...

Well, so much for keeping everything a secret.

"I have an idea," Kidada said.

I turned my head back to her. "I'm listening."

"Meet me outside today after school. I'll take you out for some coffee or something, you know, to a place where its nice and quiet and we can actually plan this out-"

"Kiddie, I cant afford that right now. I only have enough to take the bus back to Encino."

"You live in ENCINO?"

"Well, actually...I'm living with Michael. That's why."

"You're liv-...never mind. Look if you don't have the money, I'll just pay for the both of us, then. It's no problem."

"Okay," I whispered. "But I'm going to have to call Michael and tell him that I wont be home until later on tonight."

Kidada threw her hands up. "Whatever you have to do. That's perfectly fine with me."

I shut my eyes for a quick second when I suddenly felt her arms around me, the ends of her hair making my face itchy.

"Everything will be alright. I'm right here with you. Remember that I'm your friend, and we'll figure this mess out together. I promise you that."

The loud bell rang, and we both made our way to our next class that luckily we had together, me feeling half-excited for going out with Kidada after school. She was so nice. No one had offered to take me somewhere before, but I guess that was just in her nature to be that way. I believed her when she said that we would sort this out together, I just didn't know how it would all end.

Damn, could things get anymore strenuous? Really, could it?

"Ms. Goldman, please pay attention!" my teacher shouted to me.

"I'm sorry. What was the question again?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty- Starting Over

"And what would you like, miss?" asked the kind waiter with the bright green eyes.

"I'll just have a regular medium coffee with cream and sugar please," Kidada said and smiled her teeth at the waiter.

The waiter turned to me. "And you?"

"Same thing. Thank you."

"Anytime, miss. Both of your orders should be here shortly."

"Thank you," Kidada said politely, then turned to me. She sighed. "You don't want anything else?"

I shook my head, staring at my shoes.

She sighed again. "Alright, well...we're here where its quiet and we can actually think about this. Now before we try to make a solution out of this whole big mess, tell me how you even came to this situation."

I told her EVERYTHING. I left nothing out. "Well this all started obviously when I first met Michael several weeks ago. Like I said to you before, we met in front of Studio 84. I saw him with Tatum dancing and stuff, and then he spotted me outside. We met and all that stuff, and I told him my situation. You know, like why I was outside all on my own."

"Why _were_ you?"

"Oh, I guess I didn't tell you that, huh? Well, lets just say that my parents and I don't really get along that well. So that morning, they decided to kick me out of the house. I kind of wanted to leave, so I just left. I didn't take any of my things with me 'cause I was so pissed off. When I told Michael all of that, he said he wanted to take a walk with me, I guess so that my mind could be at ease for a little while. So, we decided to take a walk together. We just said the kinds of things we liked and everything, then later on we kind of got into this whole racial relationship issue."

Kidada giggled. "Um...okay. What else?"

"Then we arrived at the studio again and Tatum was there. She was REALLY mad. She was mad, telling Michael to hurry up and come back inside. Before he went back in, he hid me behind this huge bush and told me that he was taking me to his house. That's how I ended up living with him in Encino."

"Oh, I see now."

"That very same night, I told him that I loved him, which I did, even before I met him. He told me the same thing after being shocked for a while..." I paused to laugh. I could see a smile quirking up Kidada's mouth too. A little.

"So what happened after that?"

I lowered my head.

"Ziggy?"

"I, uh...don't think I should tell you that part."

She raised her eyebrows. "You guys had sex, didn't you?"

"Its not like I could back down with MICHAEL being completely naked! I mean, come on. Think about it."

"Girl, I don't blame you. Whoo, you gon' make me start thinking about inappropriate things." She started fanning herself. "You lucky bitch."

I chuckled. "Anyways...but since then, I've been living with him. Its not like I asked to live with him, he offered. If it weren't for him, I'd be living on the streets right now."

Kidada nodded. "Michael's very sweet to do that. He didn't have to."

"Yeah, that's true. I'd also not be going to Aviva with both you and Tatum."

"Why do you say that?"

I laughed. "He's the one that enrolled me. I was really pissed at him for it at first, but I know he was just trying to make sure I had a good education. I wasn't in school before that, you know."

Just then, my heart jumped. I realized that I hadn't mentioned to her about Michael's proposition to me. Or about my answer to that.

"Kiddie, there's uh...something else I need to tell you."

She nodded, indicating for me to tell her.

"Michael proposed to me the night that I found out I was pregnant."

Her eyes widened. "He WHAT?"

"Yeah," I said.

Kidada started to bang her head against the table.

"_But_, but the only reason he did that is so that we wouldn't have our child out of wedlock, you know?"

She raised her head up again and looked at me. "When he proposed to you, what did _you_ say?"

I lowered my head. She gasped. "You said yes?"

"But Kiddie-"

"Alright, alright. Look, we'll figure this out, okay?"

"I feel like a bad person, Kidada."

She chuckled. "You're not a bad person, you're a dumb sixteen year old girl."

"And Michael's a dumb twenty-one year old guy." I chuckled.

"Yes, exactly."

The waited appeared again with our coffee.

"Thanks," I said to him.

"Please, let me know if there's anything else that you both would like."

"We will. Thank you," Kidada said.

The kind waiter smiled and walked away, and we both sipped in silence for a while.

"I'll break it to Tatum tomorrow," I said suddenly.

"You sure you want to do that?"

"Yes. I'm tired of waiting like this. You have no idea how much this is killing me on the inside. I've kept this secret from her for too long. Tatum's my friend, so I need to tell her."

Kidada smiled sympathetically. " She might not want to be friends with you after you tell her, you know."

I know, but I still need to tell her. This pressure has seriously run its course."

"I know what you mean, girl," Kidada said and sipped some more of her coffee.

. . .

I wonder what was taking her so long. Kzinga said she was going out with Kidada for a while, but...its been at least an hour.

_Calm down, Michael. She's fine._ "Shut up," I told myself.

To get my mind off of things for a little bit, I decided to go to my room and write some new music. There was this new song that I was working on, but I couldn't quite get the title to what I wanted it to be.

"Hm. 'Sweet Little Lady'? No, no that's not good. '_Pretty_ Little Lady?' Uh...better, but no, not good enough. 'Sweet Young Girl'? No, no that sucks."

I tapped my pencil against my left temple. Maybe I shouldn't think of that title so much. I guess I should just work on the lyrics for right now. The title should probably come to me later. So I started singing to myself.

"Lets see, how would this go..._Where did you come from, sweetie, and ooh let me show you_-...no, that REALLY sucks. _Where did you come from lady, and_...hm." Just then, I got it! "_And ooh let me take you there_."

I immediately wrote it down on my paper.

Just then, I heard the doorbell ring. I got up from the bed, dropped everything and ran to the door. I opened the door to see Kzinga standing there smiling. It was really the first time she'd smiled since that horrible night that we both fond out she was pregnant. Of course its not a big deal now. Well, sort of. But anyways, it was really nice to see her smile again.

"Hi, baby," she said and kissed me.

I chuckled. "What's got _you_ so happy?"

She shrugged. "Nothing, its just...I'm always happy to see you when I come home from school, that's all."

I smiled and hugged her, my arms encircling her waist. I breathed in her scent.

"You seem much happier than last week," I whispered in her ear.

She broke away from me and looked into my eyes.

"Well, I'm not really happy, I just feel kind of relieved."

"About what?"

"Well, Kidada and I went out for some coffee, as you already know, and we just talked about this whole situation. Talking to her helped me a little. I told her that I was going to tell Tatum tomorrow."

I raised my eyebrows. "You sure you want to do that?"

She laughed. "That's what Kidada asked me...yes, positive. Its time to end this, Mike."

"She's going to hate you. BOTH of us."

"I know, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this away from her. She'd find out eventually because of my stomach."

I exhaled. "You're right."

I took off her backpack for her, walked into the living room and set it down on the couch. I could tell that my poor baby was exhausted. I could tell because of her energy level. She walked much slower that usual, and her eyes kind of drooped a little. I went behind her and began massaging her shoulders. She moaned pleasurably. She liked that.

"Ziggy, sweetie...you want me to cook dinner tonight?"

She turned around and looked at me. "You cant cook!"

"Well, I guess we could always just order some pizza or something."

"Mmm, pizza..." she mumbled sleepily.

I giggled. "You poor thing. What'd they do to you at school?"

She laughed. "Nothing. They didn't do anything. I think part of the reason I'm so tired is I threw up today."

"Oh, really?" I asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, but that was about it. Kidada said I looked like shit. Well, she didn't say exactly that, but she did say I looked bad."

I laughed. "You probably did. Everyone des after they puke. Even me."

"Even the most beautiful guy on Earth?"

I could feel my face getting hot. "Stop."

"Oh, you know you like it, Michael," she said.

I motioned Kzinga to the couch. I sat her down and took off her shoes, then slipped off her socks. I began to massage her feet.

"Oh, that feels _awesome_," she said.

I kissed her right foot, then massaged that.

"Ouch."

"I'm sorry, baby." I must have bent her foot back too hard.

I got up and sat next to her on the couch. I pulled her close to me. Her head rested on my chest, her arms around my neck.

She chuckled. " I can hear your heart beating."

"I can hear yours too," I said.

I took her hand and placed it on my cheek. "I love you."

"As I love you, Michael Jackson. I live you more than life itself. More than my own."

"I know..."

We sat like that in the quiet. The beautiful silence of me and her. After a while, I heard her snoring quietly.

I laughed to myself. She was so tired, poor thing.

"Kzinga, wake up." I shook her softly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Don't fall asleep, girl! We still need to eat dinner."

She chuckled and said, "Yeah, I forgot. Can we order the pizza now?"

"Sure, but I'm gonna have to get up from here so I can get to the phone."

"No, don't leave me, Mike," she joked.

I kissed the top of her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere. Now let me go so I can order this food. I'm hungry too, you know."

She exhaled. "Alright."

Kzinga untangled me, and I got up and walked to the kitchen. I looked inside the drawer with all of the takeout pamphlets in it.

"Where's that damn coupon?"

. . .

I giggled at Michael's frustration in the kitchen. He was such a cutie when he was annoyed. I felt much colder when he wasn't around me. Michael was my warmth. He was my furnace. My fire. It always began to go out the farther he was away from me.

"What kind of pizza do you want?" he asked me from the kitchen.

"Pepperoni is fine."

I got up from the couch and stretched my arms out. That nap helped a little, but I was still tired. And I needed all of the energy I could get because of tomorrow. This was the prep before battle. The prep before going into war.

Michael came back into the living room.

"Okay, the food should be here in a short while."

I set up all of my school stuff on the dining table and got to work. I didn't have that much to do tonight. So I got it done in about twenty or twenty-five minutes. By then, the pizza had arrived.

"I'm done with my homework, Michael."

"Okay, good. Come and eat. Foods ready."

I packed up all of my things and set my backpack down next to the table. Michael handed me a plate with two hot steaming slices of pepperoni pizza on it.

"Ooh, looks good."

"Dig in," he said.

I hadn't even realized how hungry I was until the first bite. Then I devoured both slices in under three minutes.

"Hungry, are we?" Michael asked me.

I nodded. "I didn't eat anything today."

He chuckled. "I can tell."

Michael was usually the one to eat fast, but tonight it was me. I was seriously starving.

I grabbed two more slices and destroyed that too.

"Don't eat too fast, sweetie. Remember what happened with me that night we had fried chicken?"

I snickered. "Yeah, I remember that. Well, you shouldn't be talking. You've already had like five slices!"

"Correction: I've had _six_," Michael said, then burped atrociously. He covered his mouth quickly, then started laughing.

I cracked up laughing too. "Wow, Mike. Really?"

"'Scuse me!" He laughed again. "I swear to you, that _totally_ had a mind of its own."

I rolled my eyes. "And I swear to _you_ that you're such a guy."

"Duh. That's why you love me, darling," he added sarcastically.

"Oh shut up," I said and threw a pizza crust at his face.

Michael got up and looked in the pizza box again.

"Aw, there's no more left!"

"And who's fault is _that_ exactly?" I asked him, folding my arms.

He pointed upwards to the ceiling and smiled.

I scoffed. "Don't blame God! He had nothing to do with this, mister."

Michael giggled. "It's all God's fault. He ate all the pizza. Shame on you, man," he said to the ceiling.

I started laughing, then I yawned. Michael noticed.

"Okay sleepy head. Time to get ready for bed. You have a long day ahead."

I groaned. "Don't remind me, _please_."

"Oh, it'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one doing it."

"I know, but when its done, then it'll be over, and you wont have to deal with it again."

"You're right, Mike. I can do this."

"That's my girl." He walked up to me and kissed me sweetly. I loved kisses from my Mikey.

"You know what, Michael?"

"What..." he whispered against my lips.

"You're really sexy."

He pulled away and gave me a funny look.

"Um...thank you. I guess..."

I snickered. "I love confusing you."

"Yes, apparently you do," he said and hit me lightly on the head.

"You gonna tuck me in?" I asked him.

"Sure, but I can only stay for a while"

"But _why_?" I whined.

"I'm working on a new song."

"You're recording _another_ song at the studio? Isn't it kind of late for that, Michael?"

He laughed. "No, that's not what I mean. I'm just thinking of ideas and writing it down."

"Oh, I see."

"Now get to bed, you pretty young thing."

I chuckled. "Whatever."

Just then, he gasped. "Wait a second...THAT'S IT! 'Pretty Young Thing'!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Michael, what in the world are you talking about?"

Suddenly, he began to run up the stairs. "Nothing, I'll be back."

"Uh..." Michael could be so confusing at times, but I was still in love with him. I'll always be in love with him no matter what he does. He'll always be my Mikey-Poo.

I stretched my arms out and began to slowly walk up the stairs. I could've collapsed right there on the floor if Michael hadn't come to the top of the stairs and saw me there about to fall.

"Who, whoa. Steady, baby. Be careful!"

"I'm sorry. I'm just...so _tired_."

He grabbed the small of my back and swept my feet up and carried me all the way to the bedroom. He lay me down on the bed and unbuttoned my jeans and slipped them off. He did the same thing with my underwear.

He forced me to stand up so that he could take off my shirt and bra, then he laid back on the bed.

"Wait here, okay?" he said.

I moaned sleepily.

Michael went in the direction of the bathroom. I could hear water running in the tub. Five minutes later, he came back and picked me up again to take me to the bathroom. He placed me in the tub of warm water. It helped a little to wake me up, but I was still tired.

Michael began massaging my shoulders like earlier. I looked up at him wearily. "Mike, what are you doing?"

"I'm getting you ready for bed, sweetie." He chuckled. "What's it look like?"

"I know, but...I mean why you doin' this? You have things to do."

He kissed my temple. "You always take care of me. Like, everyday. And I know that sometimes you come home as tired as this, but you still make sue I have everything that I need and want. You cook dinner for me every night, well, of course except for tonight, and you always make sure that I'm okay, but I never really do the same for you. That's not fair."

"But Michael, I LIKE taking care of you."

"I know you do honey, but there still needs to be some kind of balance between the both of us. Its time for me to take care of you now. Its time to switch duties for a while, okay?"

I sighed. "Alright. Whatever makes you happy. But if we're switching duties, then does that mean we're going to eat pizza or Chinese takeout every night?

He laughed. "You may not have noticed, but I watch you when you cook. I learned some tips from you about how to make stuff."

"We'll see how that turns out when you're actually doing it."

Michael's face turned glum. I think I might have hurt his feelings.

"I'm sorry, Mike, that was mean to say."

He shook his head. "No, don't worry about it. Its fine," he said stiffly.

"_Michael_, I'm sorry baby. I really didn't mean that. I promise."

He looked up at me with his sweet brown eyes. I took my hand out of the water and placed it on his face. "Please forgive me. I'm just tired. When I'm tired I say things I really don't mean."

One corner of his mouth curved up into a small smile. "I forgive you."

I leaned forward to kiss his soft lips.

"Come on," he said. " We need to get you to bed."

Michael took a washcloth and some soap and started to bathe me. I felt so stupid, but I didn't say anything. When he was done, he pulled the stopped at the bottom of the tub to drain it. I had enough energy in me to get up and dry myself.

I walked myself to the bathroom and got dressed in my pajamas, then cuddled up on my side of Michael's huge king sized mattress.

"Sweet dreams, baby girl," I heard Michael whisper in my ear. I could slightly feel his hand stroking my head, then I couldn't feel anything.

. . .

As soon as Kzinga was asleep, I kissed her forehead, got up from the bed, grabbed my pencil and paper, snuck out of the room, shut the door softly behind me, and made my way to the living room. I could finally have some time for myself to work on my song some more.

I got myself settled on the couch and started up my ideas again. I finally got the title down and some of the lyrics:

_Pretty Young Thing_

_Where did you come from, lady?_

_And ooh wont you take me there_

Hm. What could be the next line? " 'Wont you take me there right now, girl?' No, that sucks. 'Wont you..." I groaned. This was really frustrating. " 'Wont you, wont you, wont you..." I began tapping my pencil against m forehead again. Then I got it.

" 'Wont you take me there...right away, wont you baby." I instantly wrote that down on my paper. Just then, i realized I forgot y tape recorder back in the bedroom back upstairs in the room.

"Shit." I had to be really quiet if I wanted to get it or I would wake up Kzinga. She was tired, so I didn't want to do that.

I set my things down and silently made my way up the stairs and into the bedroom. I remembered that I left it right on my nightstand, so all I had to do was reach out and grab it. Then I heard Kzinga. Mission failed. Ugh!

"No, its mine! My taco..." I heard her mumble.

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She was dreaming. About TACOS. Interesting. I should mention that to her in the morning.

When I got hold of my reorder, I made a dash for the door. I closed I closed it back, ten leaned against it, relieved. That was close!

Happy that I now have what I wanted, I walked back down the stairs and settled myself on the couch again. I turn on my recorder and get ready to sing when I got another idea: I wanted to do a sort of interlude in the song. I didn't have much trouble with that. It would probably come to me as I was recording my voice. So I turned it back on and began. I cleared my throat first. "You know, you make me feel so good inside. I've always wanted a girl just like you...you're such a pretty young thing."

Wait...maybe I could think of something shorter to say than the whole thing. Like maybe...P.Y.T. It sounds pretty cool, maybe I should use that instead. I think I will. Oh yes, I'm a genius. Yep, yep I am. Okay, I'm not that vain, I swear. Well...maybe a little, but not like that. Not too much.

I worked a little more on my new song for a while, then I took a short break about a half hour later. I got up from the couch and stretched my arms and legs. Then I surprised myself by yawning. I guess I was getting sleepy too. I eyed the clock by the mantelpiece. It read 11:50. I'd been up for a while. Almost all night.

_I should probably hit the sack_, I thought to myself. So I gathered my things, turned all of the lights out downstairs, then made my way upstairs to the bathroom to take a shower.

After I was done, I wrapped a towel around myself and walked to the bedroom. I turned on the light in the room. I knew Kzinga was asleep, so it wouldn't bother her.

We both had a hellish day tomorrow, so it would be best to stack up on sleep before things happened the next day. I hope there was no such thing as being nervous in your sleep.

Yeah, we were both in for it. More me than her. Hooray for putting things off and being scared of your ex-girlfriend. I was so _fucked_. Oh well.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One- Moment of Truth

"_Hey Q, this doesn't sound too good. I think we should go with a different beat than this."_

"_Yeah, you're probably right," he said, then messed with the machine a little._

"_Anyways, we can work on this some more tomorrow. I have to get home to my wife," I said, getting up from the chair I was sitting in._

"_How's Kzinga doing, by the way?"_

_I chuckled. She's doing good. She's expected to have the baby any day now. We're basically just waiting now._

_Well, that's good. You should go now. Don't want to keep mommy-to-be waiting. Pregnant women can get bitchy sometimes. Trust me, I would know. I'm already a father," he said with a laugh._

"_See you, man." I waved, then left the room. I looked around, making sure that no one was around. I wouldn't like it too much if I had a whole group of girls attacking my car while I was driving._

_Finally, when I got home, I pulled up into the driveway, got out the car and opened the front door._

"_Kzinga? Baby, I'm home." _

"_MICHAEL! MICHAEL, HELP! HELP ME!"_

_I instantly became alarmed. I dropped the house keys and ran to where her voice was. I ran upstairs and heard her screaming coming from the bathroom. __I busted the door open to see Kzinga on the floor bleeding. There was literally blood EVERYWHERE! I ran to her side._

"_Baby, what happened to you!"_

"_I thought I was going into labor, so I tried to call you, but I started bleeding and only had enough strength to make it here to the bathroom."_

_I stared at her in shock, but then came to my senses. "Okay, I'm calling the hospital right now. Is the baby okay?"_

_She started crying. "Michael, I think we lost her."_

"_WHAT? What do you mean?"_

_She nodded slowly, tears falling down her face. I always have the capability of knowing when I was dreaming or not, but this felt so real to me. My outside consciousness was trying to break away from this imaginary hell. I tried so hard to open my eyes, but they just wouldn't . So the nightmare continued..._

_I looked behind me to see Kzinga's ex-boyfriend, Anthony, with a knife in his hand._

"_Where the hell did you come from?" I shrieked._

"_I told you I would find Kzinga. Now I' m going to kill her. And if you try to stop me, I'll kill you too, faggot."_

_I tried to stop him, but he pushed me to the side. She screamed as Anthony stabbed the knife into her chest. Her lifeless body fell backwards into the pool of her own blood, more of it streaming out of her._

"_NO!" I cried out._

_Anthony turned his face to me and punched me in my mouth. I fell against he bathroom mirror, shattering it into pieces, some of them cutting my face. I tried to fight back. I was able to punch him a couple of times, but he had much more strength than me._

_He pinned me down to the floor, holding the knife to my throat and smiling sinisterly._

_In dreams you're not supposed to feel any kind of pain, but when Anthony cut my throat, I swear I felt it. I felt the stinging blade pierce the thin skin of my neck._

_. . ._

_I was in the middle of petting the new kitten that Michael gave me when I heard a scream outside in the real world. I knew who scream that was. So I tore myself away from the dream by opening my eyes..._

The room was completely dark, but Michael's terrified yelling was clear as anything to me.

I turned quickly to the side of the lamp to turn it on, then turned back over to look at Michael. His eyes were closed, but he was still yelling.

"Michael, wake up, sweetie. Come on, Mike. Get up!"

I shook him for a while before he woke up. He opened his eyes, but when I touched his shoulder, he shrieked again.

"Michael...its okay. I'm here," I whispered, stroking his face.

He sat up and looked at me, his breathing not even being close to normal. In fact, he was hyperventilating.

"Mike, its alright," I said and chuckled. "It was all just a dream."

He shook his head. "You don't understand. That was a fucking _nightmare_!"

I rubbed his back. "What was it about? Want to talk about it?"

He shook his head, his chin quivering. "No," he said, his voice cracking at the end. Poor guy. What could he have dreamed about to freak him out to the point where he's crying?

Michael turned his face away from me and started to sniffle. Jeez, this nightmare must have messed him up bad. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know anymore, but I had to try to help him. I hoped it wasn't involving his father Joseph.

"Don't cry, baby. Just tell me what happened. He let out a sob. "Trust me, you don't want to know, It was horrible." He continued to cry.

I didn't know what else to do to make him feel better. Maybe I could try to convince him to try to go back to sleep...no, that wouldn't work. He was too horrified to even _think_ about falling back asleep right now.

"Sweetie, if you don't tell me, then there's no way I can help you. Just tell me what happened. I promise I'll try my best to work it out with you, okay?"

I touched his cheek, which was wet with tears. He nodded.

He sat up a little more and turned his face completely towards me.

"It started out in the studio. Quincy and I were working on my new song I guess, but I told him I had to get home to check on you." He smiled a little. "I called you my wife in the dream."

I smiled a little too when I heard that. Me! As Michael Jackson's wife! Goodness, what a thought.

His face turned serious again. "Anyways, I left to go home. When I got there, I heard you screaming and yelling for help. So I run upstairs and find you in the bathroom, and you're all covered in blood."

My heart stopped. "Was I really?"

He nodded. "I asked you what happened. You said that you were trying to call me because you were going into labor. But then you started to bleed for some strange reason and only made it to the bathroom."

"That's weird. I'm not even close to going into labor. Not yet. I wont be until sometime next year."

"I know, but I guess this was during around that time. But anyways...well after that...this might make you a little uncomfortable, but Anthony was in it too."

I cocked my head to one side, confused. "What was _he _doing in the dream?"

"Well, he was apparently hiding behind me. He had a knife in his hand. He said he came to kill you."

And once again, my mind drifted back to that night that he shot Michael. The last time I saw him, when he said that he would find me and kill me. Maybe Michael had a vision of he future. _My _future. _My_ fate.

"Anthony told me that if I stood in the way of him killing you, he would kill me too. So he stabbed you in the chest and killed you. I yelled in horror, and then we both fought. He took me down in a matter of minutes."

Michael continued. "He pinned me down to the floor and slit my throat, then that was it. That must've been when you heard me screaming and woke me up."

I sat there in shock, feeling scared myself. I was actually scared that might actually happen, but I didn't say that out loud to Michael. He had enough tension on his mind right now.

But he must've read my mind, because he put my hand on my face. He wasn't crying anymore, but I wanted to.

"It's like you said, Ziggy: 'Its just a dream'. That wont ever happen. Believe me when I say that if that bastard comes even ten feet away from you, I'll be sure to kick his ass. I promise you that."

I didn't say anything. I was still terrified.

He laid my head on his chest. "Don't worry. I wont let anyone hurt you. I'll always be here to shield you. I'll always be your protection." He rubbed my belly with his other hand. His long fingers caught my attention. Jesus, did he have big hands.

Michael bent forward and put his lips to my stomach. "Don't worry either, little angel. Daddy will always be here for you too."

That made me smile. I could tell he was going to be a good father.

"Hey, Mike?"

"Hm?" He looked up at me.

"I love you."

He sat up again and kissed me for a while. "I know you do. I've always known that."

Suddenly, I realized I didn't think about facing Tatum this whole time. And honestly, I was still scared, but not as scared as earlier. I knew everything would pan out the way it should later on. I didn't have anything to worry about. Michael's dream was just make-believe. God may have been trying to trick us into thinking that was actually going to happen, but Michael and I knew better. We knew _much _better than that.

"Do you feel okay enough to go back to sleep now?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I guess so. Besides, we _both_ should go back to sleep anyways."

He turned around to look at the clock, I suspected. "Its two in the morning. We definitely need to get some shut eyes."

"I was thinking the exact same thing," I said.

Michael turned off the lamp again, then we both settled back into bed. Maybe if I was lucky enough, that same dream of the cat would come back to me, but I doubted it.

"Goodnight, Michael."

"'Nighty night. By the way, you seem to have a particular craving to tacos. Just thought you should know."

I sat up. "_What_?"

**Okay people, I know those of you who read my story on a regular basis and who are big fans of it (yes, Starwater09, I'm talking to you, lol) are wanting to know what happens with Tatum. I PROMISE you that it will be in the next chapter, just bear with me. Okay, that's it for now! ** **And please review, I love to get feedback from different people on my work.**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two - Friends Forever?

I heard the alarm clock ring, and reached my hand over to touch the button to turn it off. I sat up and turned my head to see Michael sleeping soundly next to me. Man, last night was crazy! I was kind of glad that it was over. But today was the day that I would tell Tate the truth about everything.

I knew she would never want to see me again afterwards, but I didn't know how I could call myself a true friend of hers if I kept lying (either directly or by omission) about this. It just wasn't right, and it needed to end once and for all today.

I got up out of the bed and headed for the bathroom to wash up. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, took a shower and got dressed. By the time I came out of the bathroom, Michael was up. I saw him sitting on the bed rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Mornin' Sunshine," I said, chuckling.

He smiled and waved at me.

"Feel better?" I asked him.

He nodded. "I feel much better. I'm not worried at all. But I am worried about you today."

"Don't be. I'll be fine. But if I come back and I have a black eye, then don't be shocked."

"If Tatum touches you, then I'll kick her ass, regardless if she's a girl or not."

"No, Michael. You're not going to fight a girl. That's just pathetic."

He sighed. "Fine, but I will have something to say to her if she does."

"You guys are going to have to talk anyways. You have to confront her too, you know. Its not just me...its you too, Mike. You're just as much to blame for this whole mess as me."

"I know." He looked down.

"So, I guess I'll go first, then you can tell her yourself later. Better yet...can you come with me?"

Michael gave me a funny look. "Uh, _no_? I have places to go too, you know."

I sucked my teeth. "Mike, just call in sick or something!"

"I'll just ask her to come over this weekend so I can talk to her personally."

"Alright. I hope she'll want to hear your side of the story too, but don't count on it."

He scratched behind his ear. "Anyways, lets go downstairs and get something to eat. I'm getting hungry."

"Yeah, me too," I said.

We went downstairs and into the kitchen for a quick breakfast. I had a quick bowl of cereal, and Michael got a banana. We didn't talk to each other. We were both nervous. I was probably the most nervous out of us both considering I had to confront Tatum today rather than this weekend, but at least it would be over and done with once I did do it. I don't really like to wait for things. I just liked to get them out of the way.

"Well, I should be going." I placed my empty bowl in the sink and made my way to the door when I felt Michael grab my arm. I turned around to see his face full of concern.

"What's the matter, baby?" I asked him.

He sighed softly. "I just hope everything ends alright for you today."

"Michael, this is _my _fault. It s also yours too, but I need to start by telling my friend the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We need to stop running and just take the punch. For us, probably literally."

He shrugged. "She hits like a regular guy on the street!" He turned to look at the clock. "You should probably get to school now."

"Yeah..."

He brought me into his arms and hugged me for at least six or seven seconds. I broke away from him and made my way out of the door. I didn't even kiss him because I was so nervous. The temperature was cold this morning, but I would have been warmer if I didn't have all of this turmoil to deal with.

I got on the bus to get to Aviva High School, happy that this is finally going to get lifted off of my shoulders, but wanting it to be over already.

. . .

English class came around. Tatum sat not too far from me. I didn't look at her the whole class. I didn't have the heart to do so. The bell rang for class to end, and I was the first one out. I heard her calling my name, but I didn't stop. I wanted to get as far away from her as possible until lunchtime. The one class that I _didn't_ want to go to.

. . .

I sat at the table that me, Kidada and Tatum usually sat at, and waited...each minute that passed by made me more and more anxious. So much to the point that my heart could have given out right at that moment. I could have killed myself if I really had the potential to do such a thing. But there way no way I would do that to Michael. I'd already experienced what that felt like...the fear of losing someone you love. I experienced that when I almost lost HIM. I wouldn't go through that kind of pain ever again.

I looked back to see the girls coming my way.

"Hey, girl," Tatum said. I didn't even look up at her.

"What's the matter? I was calling you after English, you know. Did you hear me?"

I nodded, not responding to her verbally.

"What's wrong with Kzinga?" I heard her ask Kidada. "Did something happen?"

"More like something's _been _happening," she said.

"Huh? Okay, I'm really confused right now-"

"Tatum...I need to tell you something," I said. It was the first time I talked since I was at school. "But this isn't the place to tell you."

Tatum frowned. "Um, alright. Where do you want to go?"

"We should just go out in the hallway."

So we walked outside of the cafeteria and into the hallway. Kidada grabbed my hand and squeezed it once. "This isn't my conversation. This is between the both of you guys, so I'll just leave now."

She soon left, and it was just Tatum and I in that long, lonely hallway. Just us two. I felt the bile in my throat starting to rise. I was so scared I was getting myself sick.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Tatum asked.

I looked away from her. "You're going to hate me." I remembered when I actually found pleasure in going behind her back and doing this. I remembered when I thought that it was fun, and how much of a badass I felt myself to be at that time. But it wasn't fun anymore. I was pregnant with Michael's child and getting married to him. No, it wasn't as much fun when you had to confess to your faults. It wasn't a game anymore. Now it was just the bitterness of life.

"Why do you say that?"

"Tate...you know how you're feeling suspicious about if Michael's cheating on you or not?"

Her eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me. It was you?"

My heart pumped wildly in my chest. "I'm so sorry, Tatum."

"But...but why would you do this to me? I thought we were friends!"

I sighed. "Do you remember that night at Studio 84?"

She nodded.

"Well, that morning, I had gotten kicked out of my own house. My parents kicked me out, so I didn't really have any place to go. I walked all over the city for the entire day, depressed and scared. I didn't know what would become of me. At night, I stopped in front of the studio and saw Michael there."

Tatum said nothing, just looked at me angrily. I wanted to run away and never come back to that dreadful school, but I stayed put.

"Michael came outside and asked me what I was doing all alone, and I told him everything. We went for a walk and got really deep into conversation, and when we came back that's when we saw you outside of the studio, waiting I assumed."

She still said nothing. I continued.

"After that, he told me that he was going to take me home with him. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he insisted, and I had nowhere else to go and no money, so...I just...went with him."

She sighed. "Is that all?"

"Well...no. We got to his house and...uh, well. I think you can guess the rest."

"You didn't," Tatum whispered, tears coming down her face. "Please tell me you didn't have sex with him."

"I cant tell you that, because...because I did. I'm really sorry Tatum, I don't know what I was thinking. I just..." I knew that no matter how much I tried to convince her to forgive me for what I did, she never would. I honestly don't blame her, though. _I_ wouldn't. The bad part was I wasn't even finished with what I had to say.

"There's more," I said quietly. Tatum had her eyes closed, and was balling up her fists. I knew what to expect in about five minutes or so from her.

"One night we forgot to use protection before we had intercourse and..."

She looked up. "And what? What happened?"

"Cant you guess?"

She gasped. "You're going to have Michael's child, aren't you?"

I covered my face, then nodded. "Yes," I said through my hands. "Michael and I are going to be parents."

I decided to not tell her about what had happened after I found out that I was pregnant. Michael could tell her that part. I didn't want to. "Tatum, please forgive me for all of this. I know you must hate me."

"Correction: I _do_ hate you. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HONEST WITH EACHOTHER! What happened to that? You were never a true friend, just playing pretend."

I started to cry at that moment. She continued.

"You can forget about sitting with us from now on. You can sit by yourself or with your other friends, if you even have any at all. I bet we were probably the only ones you had at this fucking school."

"I'm sorry, okay? In case you haven't noticed, I don't feel too good about this whole situation either. I feel like a horrible person for doing this to you! That's why I wanted to tell you. I was tired of pretending like everything was fine when in reality it really wasn't."

"I'm glad you told me, but I still hate you."

At that moment, she came up to me and repeatedly slapped at my face. I tried my best to fight back, but Michael was right: She hit pretty damn hard.

She wrestled me to the floor, punching me and pulling at my hair. Kids from the cafeteria came out into the hallway and cheered us on. Teachers and administrators all came as well, trying to break us apart. I could see Kidada in the far distance trying to get through the crowd. When she finally got through, she helped the teachers in breaking us from each other, more like breaking Tatum away from me. She kept her grasp on me, but I finally got her off. She looked terrible.

Finally the principal, Mr. Wallace, came through. "What the hell is going on here?" he yelled.

Tatum was sobbing, and so was I. There was another girl that I didn't recognize help her to the bathroom. Kidada came by my side and brought me to the nurse.

. . .

"Oh my God! I look horrible," I yelled at the mirror that the nurse had given to me as I sat on the bed. I had a black eye, my hair looked like a lions mane, and my clothes were all ripped. The nurse was dabbing the cuts on my arms and shoulders. Tatum's nails did quite a bit of damage.

"I honestly expected for her to act in that way," Kidada said. She was sitting next to me, rubbing my back. "She did the exact same thing with her other friend Regina. It wasn't a pretty sight, as you can imagine."

"No, I'm sure it wasn't," I said, then sighed. "I deserved that though. I got what was coming for me, so I just hope Tatum's satisfied with her revenge."

Kidada chuckled. "After all of that, lets hope so."

"Would you like to call your parents, honey?" the nurse asked me. Kidada and I looked at each other worriedly. I looked back at the nurse.

"Um, well actually, I don't live with my parents. I live with my boyfriend."

The nurse gave me a confused look. "Well, alright. Would you like to call him so he can pick you up?"

"Yeah, sure."

She pointed to the phone and I went over there to call Michael. I grabbed the phone, hoping that Michael was still at the house.

"Hello?" he said. _Thank you God._

"Mike...can you pick me up?"

"Does it have to do with Tatum? What happened between the both of you guys?"

"Well, she beat me up," I said matter-of-factly.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, but I had it coming..." I started to cry again over the phone. I couldn't speak anymore. I knew poor Mike was wondering all of what had happened.

"Okay, baby. Tell me where you are right now. Are you in the main office?"

"No, the nurse."

Michael hesitated before speaking again. He must have been thinking. "Okay, sweetheart. Listen to me carefully: Don't go anywhere. Stay put. Are you alone?"

"No, Kidada's with me."

"Alright. Hang tight until I get there, okay? I should be there shortly. I love you."

"I love you too," I said through a cracked voice.

"'Kay, bye."

I hung up the phone.

"What'd Michael say?" Kidada asked me.

"He said that he's coming to get me."

"Okay, that's good."

The nurse went back to her office space to file some papers, leaving us two girls in the room alone.

"Kiddie, can I ask you something?"

She nodded.

"Why did you decide to keep being my friend after I told you my secret back at the coffee shop?"

"Because you're my friend too, now. You weren't before I met you of course. It was just me and Tate before...but you do mean a lot to me. You both do."

"You've known her longer, though. Why didn't you defend her?"

"I don't take sides, I only express my opinion on what I feel is the right thing to do. In your case, that was me talking to you about what to do concerning this situation."

"Well, thanks. You didn't have to be here right now."

"I felt it was right. Besides, Tate has Marlene with her."

"Marlene?"

"Her other friend. You don't know her. She and I don't exactly get along that well."

"Oh, I see..."

There was a knocking on the door.

"Come in," Kidada said.

The door knob turned, and halfway through, I could see Michael's worried face poking through the doorway.

"Michael!" I said, and ran towards him. He embraced me. I longed for his touch all day.

"You ready to go?" he asked me.

I nodded. "I've been ready, man."

He looked at Kidada and smiled. "Hey girl, how you been?"

"Oh, I've been alright. How about you?"

"Good, I just finished my first video."

"That's great, Mike!"

"Yeah, I should be releasing it sometime next year."

"Well anyways, you should get Kzinga home," she said.

I broke away from Michael and went to hug my friend."Thanks, for staying with me, girl."

"It's nothing, really," she said and laughed. "I should probably go find Tatum now and check on her, see if she's alright. She probably isn't, but..."

Michael sighed. "Can you tell her that I'd like her to come over this Saturday, if she can. You know, so we can talk things over."

"Yeah, no problem, man. Ya'll should get going before she finds the both of you here together."

"Come on, Mike." I grabbed his hand. "Bye, Kiddie."

She waved back at me.

We managed to get out of the school without being spotted by anyone except for the nurse. She had no choice but to see us, but I doubt she cared.I was so ready to get out of this place. I needed a break from school. Maybe for a while.

We were both in Michael's car. He had one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding my hand. "So, you want to tell me what happened?" he asked me.

"Not now. Wait until we get home."


	23. Chapter 23

**AUTHORS** **NOTE**

**Hi everyone! Okay, obviously I've gone on basically a two year break from this story. But if you all knew what was going on, you wouldn't believe it. I've been excruciatingly busy, and in the process, got terrible writers block which prevented me from coming up with anything good for "Man of My Dreams". But I'm here to say that I WILL be continuing it. I have not given up on it, and now that I have more time, I will be able to resume it. I'm very sorry that I've left you all hanging, especially one of my fans in particular, but I'm here now, and as I said, I will be continuing the story.**

**Now here's the thing...I will continue this in a second part. So, it will be a sequel. I should be able to start very soon and you all will get to know what happens next. Once again, I'm very sorry for leaving you all, and it wont happen again. I hope you all don't hate me, honest. Anyways, that's about it for now. The sequel will be called "Forever and Always", so be on the lookout for it. Okay, goodbye now! :)**


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